Thorium and reprocessed fuel utilization in an accelerator-driven system

The aim of this study is to investigate the nuclear fuel evolution and the neutronic parameters of a lead-cooled ADS used for fuel breeding and transmutation of reprocessed fuel. The fuel used in some rods was 232ThO2 for 233U production. In the other rods, a mixture based upon Pu-MA was used. It was obtained from PWR-spent fuel, reprocessed by GANEX, and finally spiked with thorium or depleted uranium. In order to simulate the neutronic aspects, Monteburns 2.0 code (MCNP/ORIGEN 2.1) was used. The results indicated that the simultaneous use of 232ThO2 and reprocessed fuel allowed the 233U production without initial requirement of 233U enrichment and the reduction in the amount of high radiotoxicity isotopes from reprocessed fuel.