Figure 3.32 is a material flow sheet on the same basis as Fig 3.31 for a LWR fueled with

natural uranium, recycle plutonium, and enough plutonium from the uranium-fueled LWR of

Fig. 3.31 to provide the same burnup, 33,000 MWd/MT with three-zone fueling. The salient points to notice are the following: The 980 kg of plutonium recycled per year contains a much higher proportion of the higher isotopes 241 and 242 than the plutonium makeup from the uranium-fueled reactor. The depleted uranium recovered in reprocessing contains only 0.327

w/o 233 U, and has too little value to justify conversion to UF6 and recycle to isotope

separation. The amount of U308 to be supplied is 73,322 lb, only one-sixth that needed for Fig. 3.31.

It must be noted, however, that operation of the flow sheet of Fig. 3.32 requires 504.96 kg of plutonium from the flow sheet of Fig. 3.31, which would have to be provided by (1000 MWeX504.96/243.5) = 2074 MWe of uranium-fueled LWR capacity, a total of 3074 MWe. Considering this self-contained reactor system, the specific annual consumption of U3 08 would be

Because Fig. 3.31 without plutonium recycle shows a specific uranium consumption of 439.2 lb U308/(MWe* year), plutonium recycle reduces U3Og demand by 27 percent.

Because plutonium recycle makes possible the generation of 3074 MWe of electricity with only 2074 MWe requiring enriched uranium, the reduction in separative work demand made possible by plutonium recycle is (100X3074 — 2074)/3074 = 32.5 percent, and the specific separative work demand is (106,974X2.074)/3074 = 72.1 SWU/(MWe*year). This is to be compared with 106.974 SWU/(MWe• year) without plutonium recycle.