Middle-term thorium strategy for PWR fleets

Improved plutonium management makes possible to stabilize spent fuel stocks and the plutonium inventory at the cycle back-end. Thanks to multi-recycling allowed by the U/Pu/Th studied scheme, uranium resource savings exceed 25%. Minor actinides production is also reduced even though production of curium alone increases. These results reveal that thorium introduction in standard PWR may be a sustainable middle-term option, assuming that U/Pu/Th fuel reprocessing and re-fabrication would become available.