The Oil Drum

Is that this stuff?

Next-generation nuclear fuel may be too hot to handle: report

PARIS (AFP) - New high-efficiency nuclear fuel meant to burn longer and stronger may prove unstable in an emergency and hard to dispose of, according experts cited in a report published Wednesday.

...and current reactors produce large amounts of unsightly nuclear waste.

It's good to know that unsightliness is the biggest problem with the waste. We can just send it to the landfill with old newspapers and banana peels, then.
/sarcanol

That sound exactly CASEnergy Coalition efficiency fantasies.
Please read Dittmar Proposal The Nuclear Option: Facts & Fantasies
For me personally energy should coup following criterien:
1.. Clean => OK
2.. Safe & Secure =>???
3.. Affordable & Reliable =>??? resources depletion
4.. Economic Benefits =>??? for whom?

The article is light on technical details and heavy on fluff. Nuclear Gas reactors are not very efficient to begin with. Nuclear gas reactors were designed to operate without the risk of a meltdown, but greatly sacrifies the neutron economy. The were also designed to "burn-up" fuel so that the spent fuel can't be processed to produced nuclear weapons.

The High Temperature Pebble Bed, Helium gas reactors have a neutron economy of about 0.3. where as a Pressurized light water reactor is about 0.6. A Heavy water reactors has an efficiency of about 0.9. In a reactor with 0.3 neutron efficency, approximately 30% of the fertial U-238 is converted into Fissible U-239 which contributes to the power output. Reactors with a neutron efficiency above 1.0 are considered breeder reactors, because the produce more fuel than is consumed.

The bottom line, is this is a whole lot of nothing, since the efficiency is probably not significantly better than light water reactors, and gas reactors need an abundant source of helium. Helium production is dependant on natural gas production. As Natural gas becomes depleted, so will the supply of Helium. The Pellets are also difficult to recycle spent fuel because the are designed to operate at very high tempertures. A costly process is required to remove the protective shell before the fuel can be reprocessed. Any serious nuclear power program has to include fuel reprocessing to be energy economical.

This appears to refer to concentration of enriched uranium fuel. There has been a tendency over years to go from about 3% enrichment to about 5%. Maybe they're trying to go to 10% or so.

This might be some improvement, but it wouldn't use any less uranium. The uranium would simply be more highly concentrated.