Minor actinides transmutation in SFR depleted uranium radial blanket, neutronic AND THERMAL HYDRAULIC EVALUATION
- CEA/DER/SPRC/LEDC Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Cadarache Centre, 13108 Saint-Paul-lez-Durance Cedex (France)
- CEA/DEC/SESC/LC2I Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Cadarache Centre, 13108 Saint-Paul-lez-Durance Cedex (France)
In the framework of next generation fast reactor design, the management of minor actinides (MA) is one of the fundamental issues. This can be made by either homogeneous or heterogeneous multi-recycling model. In the homogeneous process the minor actinides are diluted in the fuel assembly. In the so-called heterogeneous model, minor actinides are concentrated apart from the core fuel (in special pins within dedicated core fuel assemblies or in axial or radial blankets). Here, we proposed to see the transmutation performances of radial blankets loaded with a mixture of depleted uranium and minor actinides oxide. This particular heterogeneous multi-recycling model allows the loading a significantly higher mass of minor actinides in the core than the homogeneous multi-recycling model. The oxide matrix also allows to reprocess such S/A in the spent fuel standard flow. Starting from a preliminary design of a 3600 MW Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) in progress at CEA, we investigated the transmutation performances of (U+MA)O{sub 2} fuel in radial blankets assemblies. Among all possibilities, we focused on two scenarios: a realistic case with MA enrichment close to 10% and a more optimistic one, near term technologically achievable, close to 40%. For an equilibrium core, the MA transmutation rate reaches 40% for total fuel life time around 11 years for both enrichments. For this particular heterogeneous model, the minor actinides equilibrium (production=destruction) can be achieved with only 23% of the SFR fleet using such 40% MA radial blankets. It represents a total fabrication of 50 of such S/A per year. Concerning non-proliferation issue, the discharged plutonium of these assemblies is highly degraded (contribution of {sup 238}Pu and {sup 240}Pu around 60%). From this starting point, a coupled neutronic-thermal hydraulic optimization based on a simple iterative process has been carried out to deal with minor actinides specific features: high specific decay heat, swelling and helium production. In this paper, we review the main characteristics of the optimized system complying with GEN IV-like images of sodium fast reactors. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20979609
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems (GLOBAL 2007), Boise - Idaho (United States), 9-13 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2007 conference on advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems, 1873 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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