Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.2
Worldwide installed capacity of gaseous diffusion-, gas centrifuge- and LASER-
enrichment plants [
8
]
Enrichment-capacity in million kg SWU/a
In operation
Enrichment-method
Under construction
Under licensing or planned
Gaseous diffusion
USA
11.3
France
10.8
China
0.2
Gas centrifuge
Russia
20.0
3.0
1.0
Great Britain
3.7
2.7
Netherlands
3.5
0.13
6.8
Germany
1.8
7.5
USA
1.2
China
0.25
Japan
1.0
France
0.3
0.5
Iran
0.02
Brazil
0.01
LASER (SILEX)
USA
3.5-6.0
SUM
52.63
3.13
23.45-25.45
Table 1.3
Worldwide spent fuel reprocessing capacity in tones per year [
5
]
Country
Facility
Fuel type
Reprocessing capacity in tons per year
France
Cap de la Hague
LWR
1,700
Great Britain
Sellafield
Windscale
LWR
AGR
1,200
1,500
Japan
Tokai-mura
Rokkasho-mura
LWR
LWR
90
800
Russia
Mayak
LWR
500
India
Tarapur
Kalpakkam
CANDU
FBR
100
100
China
Lanzhou
LWR
50
LWR
Light Water Reactor
AGR
Advanced Gas cooled Reactor
CANDU
Canadian Deuterium Uranium pressurized Heavy Water Reactor
FBR
Fast Breeder Reactor
Britain, Russia or Japan did not follow this strategy but do reprocess spent fuel
elements. This led to the situation that spent fuel reprocessing facilities were almost
entirely built and operated in nuclear weapon states with Japan being the sole
exception.
Table
1.3
shows the reprocessing capacities for spent fuel elements available in
different countries of the world in 2012. The reprocessing capacities for LWR spent
fuel add up to a total of 4,340 tons per year (see also Fig.
1.1
). In addition
