Industrial Prospects for the Optimized use of U, Pu and Th for Sustainable Nuclear Energy Deployment

“Nuclear energy is part of a sustainable energy future” is a conclusion which is increasingly reached by a variety of energy scenario studies by world-renown institutions such as the IAEA, OECD/IEA & OECD/NEA, World Energy Council, and also reached by different national energy assessment reports. Nuclear does own various unique features that make this energy technology a prime candidate to fulfil a large part of our energy needs, beyond today;s use of nuclear energy for our electricity needs. The previous ‘wave’ of nuclear energy deployment since the 1970s was, and still is, governed by the use of 235U as main driver to spur this deployment of nuclear energy with gradually the introduction of the U/Pu - cycle in the thermal neutron spectrum reactor park (essentially LWR-technology). Technological progress and good economics of the U/Pu-cycle and especially the economic competitiveness of the LWR's have made this U/Pu -cycle essentially the standard worldwide. Fast spectrum reactors (FRs) haven’t yet been developed at sufficient large and industrial scale to make full benefit of the U/Pu-cycle and there are no prospects that the world would massively turn to such FRs in the immediate future. On the verge of a second wave of nuclear deployment, increasing interest is and has to be given to synergies between various nuclear reactor technologies and especially the global nuclear fuel cycle as enabler towards sustainable nuclear energy deployment. Those synergies aim at a reduced reliance on natural uranium resources, continued good economic competitiveness of nuclear energy in local markets, safe and non-proliferant use of nuclear energy, and a reduction of ultimate wastes to be disposed of. This paper provides an overview of various avenues towards sustainable nuclear energy deployment and perspectives from the nuclear industry leader AREVA.