Non-Proliferative, Thorium-Based, Core and Fuel Cycle for Pressurized Water Reactors
Two of the major barriers to the expansion of worldwide adoption of nuclear power are related to proliferation potential of the nuclear fuel cycle and issues associated with the final disposal of spent fuel. The Radkowsky Thorium Fuel (RTF) concept proposed by Professor A. Radkowsky offers a partial solution to these problems. The main idea of the concept is the utilization of the seed-blanket unit (SBU) fuel assembly geometry which is a direct replacement for a 'conventional' assembly in either a Russian pressurized water reactor (VVER-1000) or a Western pressurized water reactor (PWR). The seed-blanket fuel assembly consists of a fissile (U) zone, known as seed, and a fertile (Th) zone known as blanket. The separation of fissile and fertile allows separate fuel management schemes for the thorium part of the fuel (a subcritical 'blanket') and the 'driving' part of the core (a supercritical 'seed'). The design objective for the blanket is an efficient generation and in-situ fissioning of the U233 isotope, while the design objective for the seed is to supply neutrons to the blanket in a most economic way, i.e. with minimal investment of natural uranium. The introduction of thorium as a fertile component in the nuclear fuel cycle significantly reduces the quantity of plutonium production and modifies its isotopic composition, reducing the overall proliferation potential of the fuel cycle. Thorium based spent fuel also contains fewer higher actinides, hence reducing the long-term radioactivity of the spent fuel. The analyses show that the RTF core can satisfy the requirements of fuel cycle length, and the safety margins of conventional pressurized water reactors. The coefficients of reactivity are comparable to currently operating VVER's/PWR's. The major feature of the RTF cycle is related to the total amount of spent fuel discharged for each cycle from the reactor core. The fuel management scheme adopted for RTF core designs allows a significant decrease in the amount of discharged spent fuel, for a given energy production, compared with standard VVER/PWR. The total Pu production rate of RTF cycles is only 30 % of standard reactor. In addition, the isotopic compositions of the RTF's and standard reactor grade Pu are markedly different due to the very high burnup accumulated by the RTF spent fuel.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE NE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1049210
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-96217-2011-CP; TRN: US1204410
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 17th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering; Brussels, Belgium; 20090712 through 20090716
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
ACTINIDES
BURNUP
DESIGN
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL MANAGEMENT
GEOMETRY
NATURAL URANIUM
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR POWER
PLUTONIUM
POLONIUM 216
PROLIFERATION
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RADIOACTIVITY
REACTOR CORES
SAFETY MARGINS
SPENT FUELS
THORIUM