• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.295-301
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• 2023

To broaden the utilization of nuclear energy, uranium as a fuel should be mined indispensably. Mining accounts for the largest portion of the cost of producing the uranium assembly. Therefore, this study analyzes the trends of uranium prices, which have a significant impacts on the mining cost. Uranium production contributing to the price fluctuations is explained in five periods from 1945 to the present. Moreover, the series of events affecting uranium prices from the 1970s until the present are verified. Among them, the most recent incidents considered in this study are the following: COVID-19 pandemic, Kazakhstan unrest, and Russia-Ukraine war. European countries have started to reconsider the transition to nuclear power to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, which has contributed to the surge in uranium prices. Based on the results of this study, various international issues have been closely associated with the nuclear power industry and uranium, affecting the production of uranium and its price.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권6호
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• pp.1334-1339
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• 2020

This paper presents an empirical and comprehensive forecasting analysis of the uranium price. Prices are generally difficult to forecast, and the uranium price is not an exception because it is affected by many external factors, apart from imbalances between demand and supply. Therefore, a systematic analysis of multiple forecasting methods and combinations of them along repeated forecast origins is a way of discerning which method is most suitable. Results suggest that i) some sophisticated methods do not improve upon the Naïve's (horizontal) forecast and ii) Unobserved Components methods are the most powerful, although the gain in accuracy is not big. These two facts together imply that uranium prices are undoubtedly subject to many uncertainties.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.1063-1070
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• 2017

This paper presents a method for forecasting future uranium prices that is used as input data to calculate the uranium cost, which is a rational key cost driver of the nuclear fuel cycle cost. In other words, the statistical autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and existing engineering cost estimation method, the so-called escalation rate model, were subjected to a comparative analysis. When the uranium price was forecasted in 2015, the margin of error of the ARIMA model forecasting was calculated and found to be 5.4%, whereas the escalation rate model was found to have a margin of error of 7.32%. Thus, it was verified that the ARIMA model is more suitable than the escalation rate model at decreasing uncertainty in nuclear fuel cycle cost calculation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.295-310
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• 1975

고리원자로의 핵연로비 추정을 위한 가격 모델을 수립하고 이를 기초로 MITCOST-II 전자계산 code를 써서 고리 발전소의 전수명에 걸친 핵연료주기비를 계산하였다. 사용후 연료를 재처리 하지 않는다는 간단한 핵주기를 가정하였는데 평균 단위 핵연료비는 7.332 mills/Kwhe으로 추정되었으며 이중 우라늄 원광비와 농축비가 85% 이상을 차지하고 있음을 알아내었다. 또한 원광가격과 농축가격의 변동 및 발전소 가동율의 변화에 따른 영향을 계산했으며 그 결과 핵연료비가 원광가격 변동에 매우 민감하게 변화한다는 사실도 알아내었다. 따라서 경제적으로 전력을 생산하기 위해서는 적기에 염가로 우라늄을 확보할 수 있도록 노력을 기울여 야 한다고 제안하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.151-163
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• 1977

CANDU-PHWR형 원자로인 월성 1호기의 Zircaloy-4 피복 핵연료 설계치를 중심으로 Segel method에 의하며 FACOM 230 OS$_2$/VS 콤퓨터 시스템을 사용하여 핵연료비를 계산하였다. 아울러 핵연료 제조공장의 수덩, 가동을, 곧장시설 낑산규모 증대, 건설지 및 운전비기 변동, 이자율의 변화, 원광가격의 물가상승을, 기술개발인자 등이 핵연료비 계산에 미치는 효과에 패한 민감도를 분석하였다.

• 통상정보연구
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.265-286
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• 2009

Dumping describes the practice of international price discrimination whereby a producer or exporter sells merchandise in an export market at less than fair value. The U.S. antidumping statutory framework is embodied in the Tariff Act of 1930. The Act states that "dumping" refers to the sale or likely sale of goods at less than fair value. 19 U.S.C. $\S$ 1677(34). The Commerce Department and the Commission are jointly responsible for administering the antidumping law. Commerce determines whether foreign merchandise is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, and the Commission determines whether a domestic industry producing a product like the imported merchandise has been materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of that product. Recently, in U.S. v. Eurodif, the Supreme Court held the question whether the Commerce can reasonably determin that foreign merchandise has been sold within the meaning of the antidumping law in U.S.. Should 19 U.S.C. Section 1673, which calls for "antidumping" duties on foreign goods, but not services, that sell at less than fair value in the U.S., apply to imported low enriched uranium? Yes. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice David H. Souter, the Supreme Court held that the Commerce Department's view of imported low enriched uranium, as the sale of goods rather than services, was permissible. It reasoned that, since 19 U.S.C. Section 1673 did not specify whether it applied to the production of low enriched uranium, it was left to the reasonable interpretation of the Commerce Department to determine. Accordingly, the Court found the Commerce Department interpreted the statute reasonably.

• 대한전자공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전자공학회 2001년도 The 6th International Symposium of East Asian Resources Recycling Technology
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• pp.264-269
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• 2001

Large amounts of orange juice are produced in Japan every yea.. Accompanied by the production of orange juice, large amount of juice residues are also generated in nearly the same amounts with juice. Although, at present, some of these residues are marketed as a feed for cattle after drying and mixing with lime, the marketing price is lower than its production cost and the difference is paid by the consumers as a part of the price of orange juice. In the present work, we developed new innovative use of orange juice residue, a biomass waste, as adsorption gel for removing toxic heavy metals such as lead. arsenic, selenium and so on as well as radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium from environments. The major components of orange juice residue are cellulose. hemicellulose and pectin, which are converted into pectic. acid, an acidic polysaccharide, by means of saponification with concentrated sodium hydroxide solution. In the previous work, we found that crosslinked pectic acid gel strongly an selectively adsorbs lead over other metals such as zinc an copper. On the other hand. it is well known that polysaccharides such as cellulose can be easily phosphorylated and that phosphorylated polysaccharides have high affinity to uranium and thorium as well as some trivalent metals such as ferric iron and aluminum. Taking account of the noticeable characteristics of these polysaccharides, 2 types of adsorption gels were prepared from orange juice residue: one is the gel which was prepared by saponificating the residue followed by crosslinking with epichlorohydrin and another is that prepared by crosslinking the residue followed by phosphorylation. The former gel exhibited excellent adsorptive separation behavior for lead away from zinc owing to high content of pectic acid while the latter gel exhibited that for uranium and thorium. Both types of adsorption gels exhibited high affinity to ferric iron, which enables selective and strong adsorption for some toxic oxo-anions of arsenic (V and III), . selenium and so on via iron loaded on these gels. These results demonstrate that biomass wastes such as orange juice residue can be effectively utilized fer the purpose of removing toxic heavy or radioactive metals existing in trace or small amounts in environments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제43권4호
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• pp.383-390
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• 2011

Nuclear power has become an essential part of electricity generation to meet the continuous growth of electricity demand. A Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) was developed to extend uranium resource utilization under a growing nuclear energy scenario while concomitantly providing a nuclear waste management solution. Key questions in this scenario are when to introduce SFRs and how many reactors should be introduced. In this study, a methodology using Linear Programming is employed in order to quantify an optimized growth pattern of a nuclear energy system comprising light water reactors and SFRs. The optimization involves tradeoffs between SFR capital cost premiums and the total system U3O8 price premiums. Optimum nuclear growth patterns for several scenarios are presented, as well as sensitivity analyses of important input parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.15-31
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• 1977

중수형 원자력발전소의 가동중에 연료를 재장전하는 특성을 고려하여 새로운 핵연료 batch와 주기의 개념을 서정하고, 연속적인 에너지 계산방법으로 개발하여 핵주기비 계산관계식을 유도하였으며, 이러한 관계식들로서 중수형 원자로에 사용될 수 있는 전자계산기 코드 HWRCOST를 개발하였다. 이 코드로서 현재 우리나라에 건설중인 CANDU-PHWR의 전수명에 걸친 핵연료 주기비를 계산하였고 아울러 우라늄 원광비, 성형 가공비, 사용핵연료 보관처리비 및 발전소 가동율의 변화에 대한 핵연료 주기비의 감응도를 분석하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.306-314
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• 2015

This paper examines the difference in the value of the nuclear fuel cycle cost calculated by the deterministic and probabilistic methods on the basis of an equilibrium model. Calculating using the deterministic method, the direct disposal cost and Pyro-SFR (sodium-cooled fast reactor) nuclear fuel cycle cost, including the reactor cost, were found to be 66.41 mills/kWh and 77.82 mills/kWh, respectively (1 mill = one thousand of a dollar, i.e., $10^{-3}$ $). This is because the cost of SFR is considerably expensive. Calculating again using the probabilistic method, however, the direct disposal cost and Pyro-SFR nuclear fuel cycle cost, excluding the reactor cost, were found be 7.47 mills/kWh and 6.40 mills/kWh, respectively, on the basis of the most likely value. This is because the nuclear fuel cycle cost is significantly affected by the standard deviation and the mean of the unit cost that includes uncertainty. Thus, it is judged that not only the deterministic method, but also the probabilistic method, would also be necessary to evaluate the nuclear fuel cycle cost. By analyzing the sensitivity of the unit cost in each phase of the nuclear fuel cycle, it was found that the uranium unit price is the most influential factor in determining nuclear fuel cycle costs.