Definition of breeding gain for the closed fuel cycle and application to a gas cooled fast reactor
- Delft Univ. of Technology, Dept. R3 Physics of Nuclear Reactors, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft (Netherlands)
In this paper a definition is given for the Breeding Gain (BG) of a nuclear reactor, taking into account compositional changes of the fuel during irradiation, cool down and reprocessing. A definition is given for the reactivity weights required to calculate BG. To calculate the effects of changes in the initial fuel composition on BG, first order nuclide perturbation theory is used. The theory is applied to the fuel cycle of GFR600, a 600 MWth Generation IV Gas Cooled Fast Reactor. This reactor should have a closed fuel cycle, with a BG equal to zero, breeding just enough new fuel during irradiation to allow refueling by only adding fertile material. All Heavy Metal is recycled in the closed fuel cycle. The result is that a closed fuel cycle is possible if the reprocessing has low losses (< 1%). For reprocessing options with higher losses, adding a small amount of MA makes BG equal to zero. The equilibrium fuel contains about 80% {sup 238}U, 15% Pu, and low amounts of the Minor Actinides. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22039747
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: PHYSOR-2006: American Nuclear Society's Topical Meeting on Reactor Physics - Advances in Nuclear Analysis and Simulation, Vancouver, BC (Canada), 10-14 Sep 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 7 refs.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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