Use of Thoria-Urania Fuels in PWRs: A General Review of a NERI Project to Assess Feasible Core Designs, Economics, Fabrication Methods, In-Pile Thermal/Mechanical Behavior, and Waste Form Characteristics
- Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (United States)
- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Korea, Republic of)
This paper provides an introduction to and a summary of the remaining papers in this issue of Nuclear Technology. The papers in this issue present the important results from a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored Nuclear Engineering Research Initiative (NERI) project to study the efficacy of the thorium-uranium dioxide (ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2}) once-through fuel cycle in current light water reactors. The project addressed fuel cycle neutronics and economics; ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2} fuel manufacturing; the in-pile thermal/mechanical behavior of ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2} fuel during normal, off-normal, and accident conditions; and the long-term stability of ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2} waste. Results from this work show that a small-scale separation of the uranium and thorium will enhance the fuel reactivity and achievable burnup from uranium-thorium dioxide fuels. Under conditions that meet the thermal requirements in present pressurized water reactors (PWRs), a properly designed microheterogeneous fuel will have more reactivity than all-uranium fuel, and the overall production of plutonium is significantly reduced. The use of thorium as a host for actinide fuels when PWRs are used for actinide transmutation was also explored. It was also determined that there were no fundamental obstacles to converting the current plants that manufacture uranium oxide-only fuel to a mixed ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2} fuel. Also, the in-service and transient thermal and mechanical performance of homogeneous ThO{sub 2}-UO{sub 2}-based fuels with respect to safety is generally equal to or better than that of all-uranium fuel. Furthermore, a mixed thorium-uranium dioxide spent fuel appears to be a much more stable waste form than uranium oxide spent fuel.
- OSTI ID:
- 20837862
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Vol. 147, Issue 1; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2006 American Nuclear Society (ANS), United States, All rights reserved. http://epubs.ans.org/; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0029-5450
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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