The Nuclear Fuel Cycle

This course is intended for graduate students interested in acquiring a foundation in nuclear fuel cycle with topics ranging from nuclear-fuel reprocessing to waste treatment and final disposal. The emphasis is on the relationship between nuclear-power utilization and its environmental impacts. The goal is for graduate engineering students to gain sufficient understanding in how nuclear-power utilization affects the environment, so that they are better prepared to design an advanced system that would result in minimized environmental impact. The lectures will consist of two parts. The first half includes mathematical models for individual processes in a fuel cycle, such as nuclear fuel reprocessing, waste solidification, repository performance, and nuclear transmutation in a nuclear reactor. In the second half, these individual models are integrated, which enables students to evaluate environmental impact of a fuel cycle.