Accumulation of nuclear spent fuel from UK power stations

In the absence of a reprocessing industry able to deal with large quantities of irradiated nuclear fuel, it is expected that the bulk of the oxide spent fuel discharged from nuclear reactors will be stored for some decades. In this report the rate of accumulation of spent fuel in the UK and the proportion of its plutonium content is assessed. It is shown that the plutonium content of the metal spent fuel arising from Magnox stations alone should be sufficient to fuel a modest fast breeder programme of 1–2 GW_e well into the next century. As there is an established reprocessing industry for metal fuel, it is argued that reprocessing of oxide fuel need not take place until uncertainties over its cost and necessity are resolved.