CANDLE Burning Reactor with Plutonium Fuel Start-up Core

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:23042839

Obara, Toru; Nishiyama, Jun; Osato, Hiroki ^[1]

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1. Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology 2-12-1-N1-19 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550 (Japan)

The CANDLE burning fast reactor concept makes it possible to utilize natural uranium or depleted uranium with high burnup of up to 40% without repossessing of spent fuel from the reactor. Once the reactor reaches equilibrium burning wave condition, it needs only natural or depleted uranium, although it needs some amount of fissile material for the startup. Studies have been performed for the startup core using enriched uranium and absorbers. It is expected that plutonium obtained by reprocessing of spent fuel from light water reactors (LWR) will be an excellent fuel for the startup core. Using this fuel for the startup core will eliminate the need to produce enriched uranium, as well as make it possible to utilize the plutonium from spent fuel effectively as a useful resource. For effective utilization of plutonium as a resource, a startup core that requires only a small amount of plutonium fuel is preferable. The purpose of this study was to clarify the CANDLE burning fast reactor concept using a minimum amount of plutonium fuel from LWR spent fuel for the startup core by analysis with a simplified reactor model. (authors)

• OSTI ID: 23042839
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 115; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BURNUP
DEPLETED URANIUM
ENRICHED URANIUM
FAST REACTORS
FISSILE MATERIALS
NATURAL URANIUM
PLUTONIUM
REPROCESSING
SPENT FUELS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS