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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Spent fuel transfer project completed at INL
Work crews at Idaho National Laboratory have transferred 40 spent nuclear fuel canisters into long-term storage vaults, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has reported.
Charles T. Rombough, Billy V. Koen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 26 | Number 1 | May 1975 | Pages 5-11
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-A24399
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Studies have shown that the total energy required to construct a 1000-MW(e) nuclear power plant is about 4.1 × 109 kWh for light-water reactors. This is equivalent to ∼ 1.9% of the total energy produced by the plant (in the form of electricity) over a 30-yr life at an 80% load factor. An additional 3.4 × 108 kWh(e) of energy per year is used in maintaining the fuel cycle for a boiling-water reactor (BWR) and 3.6 × 108 kWh(e)/yr for a pressurized water reactor (PWR). This corresponds to 4.9% of the output electricity for a BWR and 5.2% for a PWR. The total investment in energy is, then, 6.8% for a BWR and 7.1% for a PWR. On a total system energy cost, nuclear plants are comparable to coal plants in that 7.8% of the plant energy is required for deep-mined coal and 6.7% for surface-mined coal.