The combined hybrid system: A symbiotic thermal reactor/fast reactor system for power generation and radioactive waste toxicity reduction
If there is to be a next generation of nuclear power in the United States, then the four fundamental obstacles confronting nuclear power technology must be overcome: safety, cost, waste management, and proliferation resistance. The Combined Hybrid System (CHS) is proposed as a possible solution to the problems preventing a vigorous resurgence of nuclear power. The CHS combines Thermal Reactors (for operability, safety, and cost) and Integral Fast Reactors (for waste treatment and actinide burning) in a symbiotic large scale system. The CHS addresses the safety and cost issues through the use of advanced reactor designs, the waste management issue through the use of actinide burning, and the proliferation resistance issue through the use of an integral fuel cycle with co-located components. There are nine major components in the Combined Hybrid System linked by nineteen nuclear material mass flow streams. A computer code, CHASM, is used to analyze the mass flow rates CHS, and the reactor support ratio (the ratio of thermal/fast reactors), IFR of the system. The primary advantages of the CHS are its essentially actinide-free high-level radioactive waste, plus improved reactor safety, uranium utilization, and widening of the option base. The primary disadvantages of the CHS are the large capacity of IFRs required (approximately one MW{sub e} IFR capacity for every three MW{sub e} Thermal Reactor) and the novel radioactive waste streams produced by the CHS. The capability of the IFR to burn pure transuranic fuel, a primary assumption of this study, has yet to be proven. The Combined Hybrid System represents an attractive option for future nuclear power development; that disposal of the essentially actinide-free radioactive waste produced by the CHS provides an excellent alternative to the disposal of intact actinide-bearing Light Water Reactor spent fuel (reducing the toxicity based lifetime of the waste from roughly 360,000 years to about 510 years).
- Research Organization:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76OR00033
- OSTI ID:
- 6123714
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/OR/00033-T466
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
C CODES
IFR REACTOR
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
MASS TRANSFER
ACTINIDE BURNER REACTORS
COMPUTER PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION
COST ESTIMATION
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
FLOW RATE
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
POWER GENERATION
PROLIFERATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
REACTOR SAFETY
THERMAL REACTORS
COMPUTER CODES
ECONOMICS
ENGINEERING
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
EXPERIMENTAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
MANAGEMENT
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
REACTORS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SAFETY
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
ZERO POWER REACTORS
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220900 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety