Plutonium stockpiles: Searching for solutions: Nuclear Engineering International

The presence and build-up of large stockpiles of spent fuel and plutonium originating from the civil nuclear power industry presents us with the problem of what to do with it. Several possible scenarios to minimise the stocks of plutonium are being considered, possibilities which are reflected in different national policies, such as an open fuel cycle, a thermal reactor closed fuel cycle with MOX recycle or a fast reactor cycle based on plutonium burners. A code, called REACTOR, was developed at SCK • CEN to help assess different strategies.