One way of supplying required energy is the use of the nuclear power
reactors which nowadays has attracted the attention of most of the developed
and also the developing countries of the world. At present the main impediment
in the fuel supply which because of:
a - The limitation of uranium resources,
b - The inadequate technological abilities of the developing countries,
has complicated the use of the nuclear power reactors. Furthermore, in most
cases, the political dependence of user countries has made the matter more
complicated.
Acknowledging the importance of the fuel-cycle for the nuclear power
reactors, in this article the different processes involved in the LWR"s
fuel-cycle are discussed briefly. Then the cost of each process is calculated
for a 350 and a 500 MW ( e ) power reactor. At the end the same calculation is carried out for a 1200 r~ (e) power reactor (IRAN 1 and 2).
It will be seen that the cost of the fuel-cycle per kilowatt -Hour
generation for the smaller units are quite close, while this cost is reduced
to about 65% for the 1200 MW (e) unit.
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