A survey of alternative once-through fast reactor core designs

Conference · Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012

OSTI ID:22107767

Fei, T.; Richard, J. G.; Kersting, A. R.; Don, S. M.; Oi, C.; Driscoll, M. J.; Shwageraus, E. ^[1]

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1. Nuclear Science and Engineering Dept., Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

Reprocessing of Light Water Reactor (LWR) spent fuel to recover plutonium or transuranics for use in Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) is a distant prospect in the U.S.A. This has motivated our evaluation of potentially cost-effective operation of uranium startup fast reactors (USFRs) in a once-through mode. This review goes beyond findings reported earlier based on a UC fueled MgO reflected SFR to describe a broader parametric study of options. Cores were evaluated for a variety of fuel/coolant/reflector combinations: UC/UZr/UO{sub 2}/UN;Na/Pb; MgO/SS/Zr. The challenge is achieving high burnup while minimizing enrichment and respecting both cladding fluence/dpa and reactivity lifetime limits. These parametric studies show that while UC fuel is still the leading contender, UO{sub 2} fuel and ZrH 1.7 moderated metallic fuel are also attractive if UC proves to be otherwise inadequate. Overall, these findings support the conclusion that a competitive fuel cycle cost and uranium utilization compared to LWRs is possible for SFRs operated on a once-through uranium fueled fuel cycle. In addition, eventual transition to TRU recycle mode is studied, as is a small test reactor to demonstrate key features. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22107767
• Resource Relation: Conference: ICAPP '12: 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Chicago, IL (United States), 24-28 Jun 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 18 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants - ICAPP '12| 2799 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
BURNUP
CLADDING
FAST REACTORS
FUEL CYCLE
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PLUTONIUM
REACTOR CORES
REPROCESSING
SODIUM COOLED REACTORS
SPENT FUELS
TEST REACTORS
URANIUM
URANIUM CARBIDES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
URANIUM NITRIDES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZIRCONIUM