Gas core reactors for actinide transmutation and breeder applications. Annual report

Technical Report · Sat Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6546131· OSTI ID:6546131

Clement, J D; Rust, J H

This work consists of design power plant studies for four types of reactor systems: uranium plasma core breeder, uranium plasma core actinide transmuter, UF6 breeder and UF6 actinide transmuter. The plasma core systems can be coupled to MHD generators to obtain high efficiency electrical power generation. A 1074 MWt UF6 breeder reactor was designed with a breeding ratio of 1.002 to guard against diversion of fuel. Using molten salt technology and a superheated steam cycle, an efficiency of 39.2% was obtained for the plant and the U233 inventory in the core and heat exchangers was limited to 105 Kg. It was found that the UF6 reactor can produce high fluxes (10 to the 14th power n/sq cm-sec) necessary for efficient burnup of actinide. However, the buildup of fissile isotopes posed severe heat transfer problems. Therefore, the flux in the actinide region must be decreased with time. Consequently, only beginning-of-life conditions were considered for the power plant design. A 577 MWt UF6 actinide transmutation reactor power plant was designed to operate with 39.3% efficiency and 102 Kg of U233 in the core and heat exchanger for beginning-of-life conditions.

• Research Organization: Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta (USA). School of Nuclear Engineering
• OSTI ID: 6546131
• Report Number(s): N-78-22884; NASA-CR-156179
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500* -- Power Reactors
Breeding
ACTINIDES
BREEDER REACTORS
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
FISSIONING PLASMA
FLUID FUELED REACTORS
GAS FUELED REACTORS
HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
METALS
PLASMA
REACTORS
TRANSMUTATION