Available Reprocessing and Recycling Services for Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel

The high enriched uranium (HEU) take back programmes will soon have achieved their goals. When there are no longer HEU inventories at research reactors and no commerce in HEU for research reactors the primary driver for the take back programmes will cease. However research reactors will continue to operate in order to meet their various mission objectives. As a result inventories of low enriched uranium spent nuclear fuel will continue to be created during the research reactors lifetime and therefore there is a need to develop national final disposition routes. This publication is designed to address the issues of available reprocessing and recycling services for research reactor spent fuel and discusses the various back end management aspects of the research reactor fuel cycle.