This study concludes that RU having a residual U-235 content higher than ~7% would cost less than the fresh EU. The affordability increases as the residual U-235 content in RU increases. For instance, the fuel cost with RU having the residual U-235 content of 19.6% is about 85% cheaper than the fuel cost with the equivalent fresh EU. This study observed that reusing RU after reenrichment in the original microreactor is impractical because the U-235 content in the re-enriched RU fuel would need to be higher than the limit for low-enriched uranium (<20%) to provide the same burnup performance due to parasitic absorption from U-236.
It is noted that this study focused on the recovery of uranium only, and the value of other fissile materials (such as Pu) in the used nuclear fuel was not considered even though those are bred significantly in fast reactors. In addition, the impacts of uncertainties in the cost data and the value of RU of TRISO fuels were not evaluated in this study due to the limited information on the cost data uncertainties and the separation cost from TRISO fuels.