Preliminary sustainable and economic analysis of nuclear fuel cycle with subcritical system

Summary Nuclear power is attractive for helping carbon reduction and energy restructuring, but the low utilization of nuclear resource and technical problems on reprocessing are key issues for further nuclear development. Subcritical system might be a potential way to solve these problems, which include fusion-driven subcritical system and accelerator-driven subcritical system. Especially the new subcritical system conception spent fuel burner could be used for waste transmutation, nuclear fuel breeding, and energy production. In this contribution, 2 nuclear fuel cycle scenarios with subcritical system for spent fuel burning and pressurized water reactor were assessed with the performances of sustainability of resources, environmental impacts, and economy. The results showed that the advanced fuel cycle based on subcritical system is an attractive option for the long-term development of nuclear power in China.