Nuclear fuel cycle (Centre d'étude nucléaire-Mol)

lbnen2010  2022-2023  Autre site

Nuclear fuel cycle (Centre d'étude nucléaire-Mol)
3.00 credits
Q1
Language
English
Prerequisites
The following BNEN courses are a prerequisite
  • Nuclear Energy: Introduction
  • Introduction to Nuclear Physics and Measurements
Basic chemistry, material sciences, nuclear physics
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 The objective is to provide students an overall view of the fuel cycle, from cradle to grave:
  • The front-end of the fuel cycle: ore extraction, conversion and enrichment, fuel fabrication and use in the power plant, spent fuel reprocessing and recycling of re-enriched reprocessed U and Pu as MOX in PWR.
  • The back-end of the fuel cycle: the radioactive waste management, ranging from waste characteristics, waste treatment technologies, disposal technologies, safety assessment of geologic disposal.
 
Content
First part -The front-end of the fuel cycle   (H Druenne)
  • Uranium extraction and treatment of ores; worldwide resources ;Conversion of concentrated ores ;
  • U enrichment: Basic principles of isotopic separation. Theory of the cascade (symmetrical cascade) and description of the main techniques;
  • Fabrication process and description of the various current commercial fuel types;
  • Basics of the in-core fuel management;
  • Isotopic evolution under irradiation regarding residual heat and source term;
  • Reprocessing of UO2 fuel elements: description of the PUREX process ;
  • Recycling of U and Pu: technology and industrial limits, equivalence principle and MOX neutronic design;
  • Interim storage : description of the main concepts for dry and wet storage.
Second part -The back-end of the fuel cycle  (P. Van Iseghem)
  • Categories, inventory of radioactive waste 
  • Conditioning and immobilisation of radioactive waste
  • Characterization of radioactive waste (general; scaling factors; destructive analysis; non-destructive analysis)
  • Assessment of the safety of geological disposal (methodology; some typical results from the safety assessment)
  • Impact of new fuel cycles on radioactive waste disposal
  • Geological repositories: key criteria for designing a disposal concept, overview of ongoing international programmes, and discussion of the Belgian supercontainer concept.
  • Technical visits to the Belgoprocess facility and to the ESV underground research laboratory in clay on the SCK-CEN site
Evaluation methods
Oral examination; written preparation
Other information
This course is part of the Advanced Master programme in nuclear engineering organized by the Belgian Nuclear Higher Education Network (BNEN).  BNEN is organised through a consortium of six Belgian universities and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK-CEN and takes place at the SCK-CEN in Mol.
Prof. Pierre Van Iseghem -Université de Liège
Prof. Hubert Druenne- Université de Liège
Online resources
https://www.sckcen.be/fbnen
Faculty or entity
EPL


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Advanced Master in Nuclear Engineering
GNUC2MC
3