Iranian researchers propose new strategy to reduce natural uranium consumption

Tehran - BORNA - The study, published in the journal Annals of Nuclear Energy, focuses on the reuse of depleted uranium as a strategic secondary resource.

Researchers examined three types of enrichment cascade configurations — cone-cone, cone-coupled-cone and cone-square — for recovering uranium-235 from uranium with an enrichment level of about 0.30 percent.

The results showed that the cone-square strategy, using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, was the most efficient approach.

According to the study, the method could reduce the number of centrifuges required by up to 31.6 percent while increasing annual production efficiency by about 38 percent.

The study’s most significant finding was a 36-percent reduction in the amount of natural uranium required to supply the annual fuel needs of a VVER-1000 nuclear reactor.

With an estimated 1.6 million metric tons of depleted uranium currently stockpiled worldwide and more than 50,000 tons generated annually, the researchers said the strategy could play an important role in optimizing the nuclear fuel cycle and reducing dependence on primary uranium resources.

According to Iran’s Nuclear Promotion and Information System, the research for the first time provides an integrated computational framework for comparing the three different strategies.

The findings also indicate that using hybrid cascade configurations could, in addition to generating economic savings, contribute to more sustainable management of nuclear waste.

End Article