| Abstract: | Conclusion Plutonium breeding in fast reactors themselves will not have any significant effect in the next 20–25 years on growth rate of the capacity of nuclear power stations with fast reactors.The character of the distribution of the capital expenditures on nuclear power stations and on the fuel cycle shows that the bulk of the expenditures is spent on the construction of the nuclear power stations and only 20% on the development of the fuel-cycle plants. For this reason, greatest savings of capital expenditure are given by a reduction in the construction costs of nuclear power stations by means of improvements in the design and of the reactor and the thermal and mechanical equipment of the plant.In the fuel cycle the biggest economic effect is produced by measures that lead to a reduction in the specific consumption of natural uranium since the capital expenditure on the mining operations constitutes about one-half of the total capital expenditures on the fuel cycle. The natural uranium costs also make up roughly one-half of the fuel component of the cost of electricity generated by a nuclear power station. As the price of uranium rises, this fraction of costs will also increase.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 43, No. 5, pp. 365–369, November, 1977. |
