CAPE3331 Nuclear Operations – assignment 2
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CAPE3331 Nuclear Operations - assignment 2
This assignment is summative and worth 10% of the module marks. The lecture material linked to this assignment is presented in:
• Lecture 6 = aqueous recycle
• Lecture 7 = advanced recycle
• Lecture 8 = transport and storage
• Lecture 9 = high level waste
• Lecture 10 = regulation and waste classification
• Tutorial 3 = risk assessment
• Problem Class 1
• Problem Class 2
Introduction
With the closure of the two reprocessing plants at Sellafield, the UK has now transitioned from a closed nuclear fuel cycle to an open fuel cycle. In addition, a new fleet of reactors is planned that will create quantities of new spent nuclear fuel. Large reactors at Hinkley Point (HPC) and Sizewell (SXC) have been confirmed for build and Rolls Royce are planning a fleet of small modular reactors. There may also be other types of reactors built such as high temperature gas reactors. Above this is the legacy spent nuclear fuel from operating AGRs (currently designed for wet storage @ Sellafield) and a small amount of Magnox that could not be reprocessed.
There are many options to deal with the overall quantities of spent nuclear fuel, but two different approaches are:
1) Continue with an open fuel cycle philosophy and directly dispose of all spent fuel. This would require long term storage, which could be:
a. Create a single storage facility @ Sellafield suitable for all spent fuel types and transport fuel from the reactor sites to this facility.
b. Store locally at individual reactor sites and then transport to Sellafield for
treatment prior to disposal. This would require an interim storage facility @ Sellafield to act as a buffer.
2) Build a new generation of reprocessing facilities that fully close the fuel cycle. This would also require an interim storage facility @ Sellafield to act as a buffer.
Questions
Part 1
Considering the quantity of legacy fuel already stored (i.e. Magnox and AGR), plus the large reactors that are planned in the UK, i.e. HPC and SXC, calculate the total amount of spent fuel that needs to be stored for either disposal or reprocessing. Assume HPC and SXC begin operation in 2030 and run until 2060. Present your answer as tU for each fuel type. (15 marks)
Part 2
Based on the quantity of spent fuel you have calculated in Part 1, identify and quantify the risks and security threats associated with storage of the fuel. Assume:
• Spent fuel is stored in a small buffer store (dry) for 12months @ reactor
• After 12months all spent fuel is transported via rail to a central store @ Sellafield
• Storage @ Sellafield is in a wet facility (30 marks)
Part 3
Based on the quantity of spent fuel you have calculated in Part 1, briefly compare two of the strategic options listed above (1a and 2) against the themes of affordability (economics), sustainability (environmental) and safety/security to show which one is more advantageous and explain why. Present your answer in the form of a table. (25 marks)
Submission
Submit your answers to parts 1 to 43 as a single report, using no more than 6 pages of A4 including title page, figures and calculations. References or a reference list are not included in the page count. Please follow the general formatting guidelines provided below. Reports can be submitted in either .docx or .pdf format. Should the submitted document exceed the page limit, only the first 6 pages will be assessed and marked.
Overall Marking Scheme
• Part 1 = 15 marks
• Part 2 = 30 marks
• Part 3 = 25 marks
• Overall presentation and technical quality of the report = 30 marks
General formatting guidelines
• The assignment is to be submitted electronically via MINERVA.
• All work is to be given a descriptive, informative title, whenever appropriate. This title is to be specific to the assignment, rather than generic (e.g. The Current Status of the UK Nuclear Industry, not Assignment 1).
• The author’s name and student number should appear immediately below the title at the start of the document.
• All work must remain within the page limit, as specified above for the relevant assignment.
• 20 mm margins all round.
• Use a readable font and size for the narrative. The font used must have characters that are no smaller than those of 11 point Arial.
• Students may adopt their own choice of fonts and sizes for headings and have the
option of using colour for headings, so long as a professional looking document results from these.
• References can be single spaced and up to two points smaller than the narrative (e.g. 10 point if the text is 12 point), no blank line between references.
• Figure captions should be single spaced.
• All headings, except the title, are to be decimally numbered (e.g. 1.2.3 for the third sub- subheading, under the second subheading in section 1).
• Pages are to be numbered.
• All reports must follow the accepted standards of technical communication or points will be deducted. Avoid sloppy grammar, spelling errors, or use of colloquial English.
Reports should be written in the third person, present tense, e.g. “the design consists of” not “my design consisted of” .
• Scientific conventions must be adhered to, e.g.
o Use of SI units is mandatory throughout (e.g. cm is not an SI unit) and points will be deducted for any failure to use SI units.
o Use SI prefixes (k, m, M, G etc.) and note that one works up from a smaller
prefix, not down from a larger one (e.g. 100 μm not 0.1 mm). Also don’t forget that 1 mm ≠ 1 Mm.
o Do not forget that any value that is not dimensionless must include a unit!
o The current convention is to avoid the use of a slash in units wherever possible (e.g. m s– 1, not m/s).
o The only acceptable deviations from SI units are as follows:
o Strictly °C is not an SI unit, but its use is tolerated by the scientific community (but most calculations only work in K!). Note that a degree symbol is normally used with the centigrade scale (°C) but not with Kelvin (K).
o eV is not an SI unit but is often far more convenient than J for nuclear
calculations and so the use of eV is generally tolerated by the scientific community. However, be careful not to confuse eV and J and to convert between these correctly.
o Atomic mass units (amu) are not SI but working in kg would be very
inconvenient for most calculations. That said, be sure to compare like with like (e.g. the conversion of mass in kg to energy in J).
o Calculations only work in seconds (s), but it is acceptable to use minutes and hours for the final output, although strictly 1 hour should be written as 3.6 ks.
o The SI unit of angle is the radian (rad), but degrees remain widely used.
o Any other possible exceptions must be discussed in advance with the module leader.
• If any graphs are used, do not forget to label the axes.
• Where symbols are used, these must be defined exactly.
• Use conventional symbols where these exist (e.g. t for time, T for temperature, mol for mole, A for atomic mass, Z for atomic number) and define the meaning of all symbols at first use.
• The first letter of the names of chemical elements (e.g. chromium) is not capitalised, except at the start of a sentence. However, the first letter of an element’s chemical symbol (e.g. Cr) is always capitalised.
• The normal convention is to use a leading superscript for the atomic mass when an
isotope is represented by its symbol (e.g. 235U), but in a narrative context it is acceptable to write the mass behind the element name (e.g. uranium–235).
Advice on how to start
• Only consider what we know or is in the public domain.
• It is important to explain how and why a given choice was made, as well as what was chosen.
• Think analytically and wherever appropriate provide a supporting explanation (or at least a summary of the decision making processes and criteria followed to reach the choice made).
• Be quantitative wherever this is possible (mathematics can provide a great deal of insight).
• Try to take a balanced and objective view, recognising that there may be both pros and cons to a given engineering option.
• Be very wary of dogmatic statements that are not supported clearly by evidence.
• Use reputable, objective sources of information (e.g. academic journals, conference proceedings, reputable industry periodicals or other well respected sources).
• Beware of a lack of both objectivity and reliable data on many web sites. Unlike an
academic journal where the papers are refereed by peer review, there is no quality
assurance on the internet. Use of government reports are often important but be sure to distinguish those that are purely political documents from technical reports.
• Follow standard conventions for referencing:
o In the text: Use an appropriate reference mark1 or [1]. Alternatively, reference by author and year (Smith and Jones 1990) or (Smith and Jones 1990i) if
multiple papers from the same authors in the same year are referenced.
o At the end of the document, provide a full list of references, using a standard format e.g. A. Smith and B. Jones, “A Snoremetric and Statistical Study of
When and Why Students Fall Asleep in Lectures”, Int. J. Studen. Obervat., 23(3), 450 – 455, 1990.
o If in doubt, take a look at the Instructions for Authors for any reputable journal.
Academic Integrity
• The University has very severe penalties for plagiarism and cheating (up to expulsion
from the University with no degree awarded). Every year students fall foul of these rules, in some cases to the extent of their being expelled.
• Do not cheat or plagiarise! Quite apart from being immoral, it simply isn’t worth the risk (and will stay on the student’s record). The University goes to great lengths to catch
those who do not follow these rules.
• Assignments are subject to an automated plagiarism check when uploaded to MINERVA.
• What constitutes cheating is obvious, but students sometimes claim not to understand plagiarism. Here is some brief guidance:
o If something is not entirely the student’s own original work and based
exclusively on ideas that the student has developed from scratch, then a
reference must be given (to the original technical source, not some web site of dubious technical quality), following standard scientific conventions.
o In addition to a reference, on such rare occasions as it is necessary to quote something verbatim, quotation marks must be used.
o Where an activity is impacted by collaboration, give credit in the narrative at appropriate locations and add an acknowledgements section.
• This is not a comprehensive list of academic honesty violations (and there are other
examples of plagiarism not covered in this document). Nothing in this document waives any University regulation.
• Students are responsible for knowing the rules and adhering to them. Ignorance of the rules is not a defence! It is students’ responsibility to read and understand the CAPE Student Handbook and to ask about anything they do not understand.
2024-01-30