Simulations of Progressive Potential Scenarios of Pu Multirecycling in SFR and Associated Phase-out in the French Nuclear Power Fleet

International audienceAfter the studies carried out in the frame of the 2006 French Act for waste management, the CEA, EDF and AREVA decided to work together on progressive potential scenarios of the French transition between the current nuclear fleet and a SFR fleet which does not require natural uranium to operate. To do so, several steps were defined, each of them having a different purpose and allowing a gain of experience to move on to the next one.In one of these scenarios, between 2030 and 2062 the current PWR fleet is renewed by an EPR reactor fleet in which plutonium keeps on being monorecycled. This EPR reactor fleet is loaded with about 10% of MOX fuel which enables to stabilize the UOX spent fuel inventory. Beginning from the 2040 decade, a few FR reactors and their associated cycle are progressively introduced MOX PWR spent fuels reprocessing begins in 2040 in order to feed three 1000 MWe breakeven SFR, commissioned between 2050 and 2059.This enables to test at an industrial scale the new Nuclear System and to stabilize used MOX fuel inventory. To prepare for a larger FR deployment, three 1450 MWe breakeven SFR are commissioned between 2075 and 2085. An SFR spent fuel reprocessing of 15 to 21 tHM/y starts in 2060 in order to feed the three 1450 MWe SFR. From 2090, thirteen additional 1450 MWe SFR are deployed in order to reach an equilibrium fleet composed of sixteen 1450 MWe breeder SFR and 22 EPR reactors (with an average MOX load of 39.5%). At this point of the scenario, the Pu global inventory is stabilized, and the energy production remains constant at 420TWhe. From 2150, this EPR/SFR reactor fleet is progressively renewed by a new one composed of 41 breakeven SFR, which does not require natural uranium to operate.SFR deployment in 2150 leads to a slight increase in the global plutonium inventory which stabilizes definitively in 2180. At the end of the scenario, the Pu inventory is reduced by 47% compared with a 100% UOX PWR fleet (open cycle scenario). The global minor actinides inventory is increasing at a rate that can be managed at the back end. Over the whole scenario, 1.01.106 tons of natural uranium have been used. This represents a 40% reduction compared with the open cycle scenario.A faster SFR deployment scenario was also studied, identical to the previous one up to 2090. From 2090, a 41 SFR fleet is deployed according to Pu availability. The equilibrium is reached in 2135 when the global Pu inventory is stabilized.Nuclear phase-outs have been studied at several dates in order to evaluate the impacts in terms of inventories at each step of the scenario. Studies of optimized phase-out, aiming at reducing the Pu global inventory, the spent fuel mass and the waste inventories, have also been carried out. They involve MOX EPR reactors with high moderation ratio and enriched uranium support and burner SFR