Physical and Technical Problems of Reprocessed Uranium Enrichment with Repeated Recycling in Light-Water Reactors and Ways to Solve Them

Issues concerning fuel cycle closure are discussed. It is shown that from the standpoint of full utilization of reprocessed nuclear materials the main problems are associated with repeated recycling of uranium, the reason being that limitations are imposed on the content of the isotope 232U in fresh fuel produced from reprocessed materials. The losses of the isotope 235U on repeated recycling of reprocessed uranium in the form of fuel from uranium regenerate and mixtures of processed uranium and plutonium oxides are evaluated. For a light-water reactor, a method of fuel cycle closure making it possible to reduce the 235U losses almost to zero on purification of reprocessed uranium from 232U is shown.