Comparative Fuel Cycle Analysis of Critical and Subcritical Fast Reactor Transmutation Systems

Abstract To make the nuclear fuel cycle more economical and convenient, as well as prevent nuclear proliferation, the conceptual study of a simple high-temperature dry reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) for a ceramic fast reactor is proposed in this paper. This simple high-temperature dry (HT-dry) reprocessing includes the Atomics International Reduction Oxidation (AIROX) process and purification method for rare-earth elements. After removing the part of fission products from SNF by a HT-dry reprocessing without fine separation, the remaining nuclides and some uranium are fabricated into fresh fuel which can be used back to the ceramic fast reactor. Based on the ceramic coolant fast reactor, we studied neutron physics of nuclear fuel cycle which consists operation of ceramic reactor, removing part of fission products from SNF and preparation of fresh fuels for many time. The parameters of the study include effective multiplication factor (Keff), beam density, and nuclide mass for different ways to remove the fission products from SNF. With the increase in burnup time, the trend of increasing 239Pu gradually slows down, and the trend of 235U gradually decreases and become balanced. For multiple removal of part of fission products in the nuclear fuel cycle, the higher the removal, the larger the initial Keff.

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Core Design Studies of a Fast Reactor and Accelerator-Driven System for Two-Stage Fast Spectrum Fuel Cycle Option

Nuclear Technology ◽

10.13182/nt16-90 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 197 (1) ◽

pp. 29-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ching-Sheng Lin ◽

Tongkyu Park ◽

Won Sik Yang

Keyword(s):

Fast Reactor ◽

Fuel Cycle ◽

Two Stage ◽

Design Studies ◽

Driven System ◽

Accelerator Driven System

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Modeling minor actinide multiple recycling in a lead-cooled fast reactor to demonstrate a fuel cycle without long-lived nuclear waste

Nukleonika ◽

10.1515/nuka-2015-0111 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 60 (3) ◽

pp. 581-590 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Przemysław Stanisz ◽

Jerzy Cetnar ◽

Grażyna Domańska

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Fuel ◽

Nuclear Waste ◽

Fast Reactor ◽

Fuel Cycle ◽

Reactor Core ◽

Nuclear Fuel Cycle ◽

Minor Actinide ◽

Closed Nuclear Fuel Cycle ◽

European Collaboration ◽

Multiple Recycling

Abstract The concept of closed nuclear fuel cycle seems to be the most promising options for the efficient usage of the nuclear energy resources. However, it can be implemented only in fast breeder reactors of the IVth generation, which are characterized by the fast neutron spectrum. The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) was defined and studied on the level of technical design in order to demonstrate its performance and reliability within the European collaboration on ELSY (European Lead-cooled System) and LEADER (Lead-cooled European Advanced Demonstration Reactor) projects. It has been demonstrated that LFR meets the requirements of the closed nuclear fuel cycle, where plutonium and minor actinides (MA) are recycled for reuse, thereby producing no MA waste. In this study, the most promising option was realized when entire Pu + MA material is fully recycled to produce a new batch of fuel without partitioning. This is the concept of a fuel cycle which asymptotically tends to the adiabatic equilibrium, where the concentrations of plutonium and MA at the beginning of the cycle are restored in the subsequent cycle in the combined process of fuel transmutation and cooling, removal of fission products (FPs), and admixture of depleted uranium. In this way, generation of nuclear waste containing radioactive plutonium and MA can be eliminated. The paper shows methodology applied to the LFR equilibrium fuel cycle assessment, which was developed for the Monte Carlo continuous energy burnup (MCB) code, equipped with enhanced modules for material processing and fuel handling. The numerical analysis of the reactor core concerns multiple recycling and recovery of long-lived nuclides and their influence on safety parameters. The paper also presents a general concept of the novel IVth generation breeder reactor with equilibrium fuel and its future role in the management of MA.

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