Investigation on the potential use of thorium as fuel for the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

Generation IV reactors are planned to be an evolutionary step in the history of nuclear power plants. Although they have many advantageous properties, five of the six concepts are designed for the utilization of uranium-plutonium fuel. In this paper, the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor is investigated regarding the potential application of thorium. The basis of the investigation is the European concept of SFR, which is studied with thorium-containing fuel compositions. Two different approaches are presented with the results of several full-core burnup calculations performed by the Monte Carlo code Serpent 2. The presented results are the multiplication factor changes, delayed neutron fractions, fuel temperature and void coefficients and fissile isotope vectors as well. The results can help to determine how 233U could be produced in this type of reactors and how it could be used as alternative fuel in SFR.