Sustainable Thorium Nuclear Fuel Cycles: A Comparison of Intermediate and Fast Neutron Spectrum Systems

Journal Article · Thu May 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nuclear Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.04.015· OSTI ID:1265662

Brown, Nicholas R. ^[1]; Powers, Jeffrey J. ^[2]; Feng, B. ^[3]; Heidet, F. ^[3]; Stauff, N. ^[3]; Zhang, G. ^[3]; Todosow, Michael ^[1]; Worrall, Andrew ^[2]; Gehin, Jess C. ^[2]; Kim, T. K. ^[3]; Taiwo, T. A. ^[3]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

This article presents analyses of possible reactor representations of a nuclear fuel cycle with continuous recycling of thorium and produced uranium (mostly U-233) with thorium-only feed. The analysis was performed in the context of a U.S. Department of Energy effort to develop a compendium of informative nuclear fuel cycle performance data. The objective of this paper is to determine whether intermediate spectrum systems, having a majority of fission events occurring with incident neutron energies between 1 eV and 10⁵ eV, perform as well as fast spectrum systems in this fuel cycle. The intermediate spectrum options analyzed include tight lattice heavy or light water-cooled reactors, continuously refueled molten salt reactors, and a sodium-cooled reactor with hydride fuel. All options were modeled in reactor physics codes to calculate their lattice physics, spectrum characteristics, and fuel compositions over time. Based on these results, detailed metrics were calculated to compare the fuel cycle performance. These metrics include waste management and resource utilization, and are binned to accommodate uncertainties. In conclusion, the performance of the intermediate systems for this self-sustaining thorium fuel cycle was similar to a representative fast spectrum system. However, the number of fission neutrons emitted per neutron absorbed limits performance in intermediate spectrum systems.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Fuel Cycle Technologies (NE-5)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725; SC0012704; AC02-98CH10886; AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1265662
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1245305; OSTI ID: 1339354
• Report Number(s): BNL-107943-2015-JA; AF5832020; NEAF322
• Journal Information: Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 289; ISSN 0029-5493
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS