Testing New Inert Matrix and Thoria Fuels for Plutonium Incineration
- ENEA, Via Martiri di Monte Sole, 4, Bologna 40129 (Italy)
- Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)
- OECD Halden Reactor Project, Institut for Energiteknikk, 1751 Halden (Norway)
One major issue for nuclear power continues to be the public concern about rad-waste and proliferation risk induced by large plutonium stockpiles accumulated worldwide. In this context, nuclear fuels which exhibit no-plutonium production, and possibly allow for an efficient utilization of the plutonium to get rid of, are of great interest. This is the basic reason for the efforts that many international institutions are devoting to R and D on such new U-free fuel concepts as Inert Matrix (IMF) and Thorium fuels. At the moment the major merit of such innovative fuels is primarily related to the safe closure of the nuclear fuel cycle as especially expected from those new concepts like ADS (Accelerated Driven System) for the transmutation of plutonium, minor actinides and LLFP. Both ceramic inert matrix (IM) and thoria (T) fuels have been identified as suitable to the scope of burning weapon and civilian plutonium and to act also as possible carrier for transmutation of minor actinides. For testing the irradiation behaviour of these new materials, three kinds of fuels have been selected: inert matrix (IM) fuel, inert matrix thoria-doped (IMT) fuel, and thoria (T) fuel. A first experiment, IFA-652, 40 MWD/kg burnup target, including high enriched uranium (HEU) as fissile phase, instead of plutonium, is currently underway in the Halden HWBR. The reason for this choice was that manufacturing of Pu containing fuels is more complex and there was no fabrication facility available at the needed time for the Pu fuel. It is expected, however, that the relative behaviour of the different kind of matrices would be only slightly dependent on the adopted fissile material. So, the comparison of the in-pile performance of the three fuels will constitute a significant common database also for plutonium bearing fuels. The primary aim for the IFA-652 experiment is the measurement of basic characteristics under LWR irradiation conditions over a period of 4-5 years. The design of a second experiment, truly based on plutonium bearing fuel with 80 MWd/kg target burnup, is under preparation. Beyond exploitation in the future transmuters (ADS), the selected fuels are also considered promising candidates for a more effective burning of all kind of plutonium in the present commercial LWRs, what may represent their near term application especially for the weapon Pu stockpile reduction. Most likely this latter aspect is of interest for a wider number of countries which do exploit the benefits of nuclear energy. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21064637
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICONE-10: 10. international conference on nuclear engineering, Arlington - Virginia (United States), 14-18 Apr 2002; Other Information: Country of input: France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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