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Feasibility study on the thorium fueled boiling water breeder reactor

Conference ·
OSTI ID:22106035
 [1]
  1. Dept. of Applied Science, Tokai Univ., Kitakaname, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa 259-1292 (Japan)
The feasibility of (Th,U)O 2 fueled, boiling water breeder reactor based on conventional BWR technology has been studied. In order to determine the potential use of water cooled thorium reactor as a competitive breeder, this study evaluated criticality, breeding and void reactivity coefficient in response to changes made in MFR and fissile enrichments. The result of the study shows that while using light water as moderator, low moderator to fuel volume ratio (MFR=0.5), it was possible to breed fissile fuel in negative void reactivity condition. However the burnup value was lower than the value of the current LWR. On the other hand, heavy water cooled reactor shows relatively wider feasible breeding region, which lead into possibility of designing a core having better neutronic and economic performance than light water with negative void reactivity coefficient. (authors)
Research Organization:
American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
OSTI ID:
22106035
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English