Researchers have applied London’s iconic Tube map to help visualise the complexities of different nuclear fuel cycle options.
Nuclear energy is already considered a sustainable energy source. However, the simplest fuel cycle option - the Once-Through Cycle (OTC) - has an environmental question mark over its end-to-end sustainability, particularly over the permanent disposal of used radioactive fuels.
Other options involve different degrees of closing the fuel cycle by recycling and reusing materials from these used fuels.
In their study, a research team based at the Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester, wanted to examine how six different options for the nuclear fuel cycle, all with different degrees of materials recycling, could improve the sustainability of nuclear energy.
The challenge is that these different nuclear fuel cycles involve dozens of concurrent chemical, industrial, safety, security and regulatory stages all happening simultaneously.
To simplify this...