Depletion evaluation of an ADS using reprocessed fuel

• Accelerator driven system has been investigated for fuel breeding and transmutation of spent fuel.
• The fuel used was a mixture based upon Pu-MA reprocessed by GANEX and thorium.
• The multiplication factor, neutron spectra and nuclear fuel evolution were analyzed.
• The results allowed 233U production and reduction in the amount of high radiotoxicity isotopes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the nuclear fuel evolution and the neutronic parameters of a lead-cooled Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) used for fuel breeding and transmutation of spent fuel. The simulated core was a cylinder fueled with a hexagonal lattice with 156 fuel rods. The fuel used was a mixture based upon Pu-MA, removed from PWR-spent fuel, reprocessed by GANEX and spiked with 82% of thorium. Monteburns 2.0 (MCNP5/ORIGEN 2.1) code was used to simulate the neutronic aspects of the fuel. The multiplication factor, neutron spectra and nuclear fuel evolution were analyzed during 10 years of burn-up. The results indicated that the use of GANEX fuel spiked with thorium allowed 233U production and reduction in the amount of high radiotoxicity isotopes.