Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1728618 Annals of Nuclear Energy 2013 13 Pages PDF
Abstract
We have investigated neutronics aspects of multirecycling of Pu, Am and Cm in BWRs, employing three uranium and three thorium-supported transmutation fuels. Our results show, that thorium-based cores allow for higher shares of MA in the fuel and thereby higher MA incineration without encountering a positive total void worth at any point of the multirecycling. In the uranium-based configuration the total void worth sets the limit on the MA share around 2.45%. The thorium-based fuels also exhibit a stronger Doppler feedback and somewhat degraded reactivity as compared to uranium-fuels. The alpha-heating in the fuel reaches equilibrium after six cycles, maintaining values of 24-31 W/kgFUEL in the uranium-based configurations and 32-37 W/kgFUEL in the thorium-based configurations. The neutron emission keeps rising through the multirecycling, the maximum value reached in the XV cycle ranges from 1.4 × 106 to 1.7 × 106 n/s/g for uranium fuels and 2 × 106 n/s/g for the thorium-based fuels.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Energy Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Authors
, ,