As I have said in past blogs, Russia is dedicated to making the export of nuclear technology a major part of their trade with other nations. They also provide nuclear fuel to other countries. The Khlopin Institute of Russia has been working for several years on a new fuel recycling model for Tenex, a Russian export company. The fuel is called REMIX which stands for "Regenerated Mixture."
REMIX fuel is produced from recycled uranium and plutonium from reprocessed fuel. About twenty percent of the mixture is made up of low-enriched uranium with up to seventeen percent U235. This results in a fuel that is about one percent Pu-239 and four percent U-235. REMIX can fuel a nuclear power reactor for about four years. At the end of the four years, the fuel would contain about two percent Pu-239 and one percent U-235. The spent fuel is allowed to cool and then low-enriched uranium is added and the mixture is reprocessed. The fission products and the minor actinides wastes are separated out and vitrified for storage until a geological repository is available for permanent disposal.
One load of REMIX fuel can be reprocessed up to five times. So, a nuclear power reactor could rotate three loads of REMIX fuel to operate for a full reactor lifetime of sixty years. REMIX fuel requires about twenty percent less natural uranium than what is referred to as an open fuel cycle where the fuel is used only once. On the other hand, because of more complex fuel reprocessing and mixing, it can cost up to thirty percent more.
One of the reasons for the development of the REMIX fuel fabrication system was concern over supplies of uranium ore. As it becomes more expensive to mine and refine uranium from ores that are less concentrated, the REMIX fuel may become cheaper fuel that is used only once. It is also expected that REMIX will produce less waste and reduce disposal costs over the open fuel cycle.
REMIX fabrication does not lead to the accumulation of reprocessed uranium and it does not allow for the separation of plutonium which is considered a risk for nuclear weapons proliferation.
Russian fuel suppliers are developing a fuel leasing program for the REMIX fuel. The idea would be to have the supplier retain the ownership of the REMIX fuel. The fuel would be supplied to the power reactors and at the end of the four year burn cycle, the spent fuel would be returned to the Russian supplier for reprocessing. The reprocessed fuel would then be sent back to the customer to be burned again in their reactor.
Russia has just begun field trials of REMIX fuel in their Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant. The fuel will remain in a reactor at Balokovo for at least three years. The fuel and the reactor will be monitored carefully for the entire time. At the end of the three years, the fuel assemblies will be removed from the reactor and delivered to a special laboratory for examination.
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