Evaluation of reactivity coefficients for transuranic burning fast-reactor designs

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:7057673

Hill, R N ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)

Since actinide waste management has received increased attention in recent years and since transuranics dominate the long-term toxicity of spent fuel, the usefulness of transuranic (TRU) burning is again being evaluated. Various concepts for burning TRUs, ranging from accelerators to thermal reactor recycle, have been proposed. However, the integral fast reactor (IFR) fuel cycle offers a number of favorable features regarding management of man-made actinides; the behavior of actinides in the IFR fuel cycle was investigated. The fuel cycle processing techniques and hard neutron energy spectrum associated with the metal fuel facilitate TRU burning, and the wide range of breeding characteristics available in fast-reactor cores provides for flexibility in TRU management strategy. Previous design studies of metal-fueled TRU burner cores have focused on fuel cycle and neutronic performance analyses. The passive safety behavior of burner core designs is also important; thus, this paper evaluates reactivity coefficients for a wide variety of TRU burner designs.

• OSTI ID: 7057673
• Report Number(s): CONF-920606--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 65
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Management
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500* -- Power Reactors
Breeding
ACTINIDE BURNER REACTORS
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
BARYONS
BURNUP
DELAYED NEUTRONS
DOPPLER EFFECT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY SOURCES
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FERMIONS
FISSION NEUTRONS
FUELS
HADRONS
HETEROGENEOUS REACTOR CORES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEONS
PHYSICS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTOR PHYSICS
REACTORS
SPENT FUELS
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS
VOID FRACTION
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES