Use of Thoria-Urania Fuels in PWRs - A General Review of a NERI Project to Assess Feasible Core Design, Economics, Fabrication Methods, In-Pile Thermal/Mechanical Behavior, and Waste Form Characteristics
This paper provides an introduction to and a summary of the remaining papers in this issue of Nuclear Technology. The papers in this issue present the important results from a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored Nuclear Engineering Research Initiative (NERI) project to study the efficacy of the thorium-uranium dioxide (ThO2-UO2) once-through fuel cycle in current light water reactors. The project addressed fuel cycle neutronics and economics; ThO2-UO2 fuel manufacturing; the in-pile thermal/mechanical behavior of ThO2-UO2 fuel during normal, off-normal, and accident conditions; and the long-term stability of ThO2-UO2 waste. Results from this work show that a small-scale separation of the uranium and thorium will enhance the fuel reactivity and achievable burnup from uranium-thorium dioxide fuels. Under conditions that meet the thermal requirements in present pressurized water reactors (PWRs), a properly designed microheterogeneous fuel will have more reactivity than all-uranium fuel, and the overall production of plutonium is significantly reduced. The use of thorium as a host for actinide fuels when PWRs are used for actinide transmutation was also explored. It was also determined that there were no fundamental obstacles to converting the current plants that manufacture uranium oxide-only fuel to a mixed ThO2-UO2 fuel. Also, the in-service and transient thermal and mechanical performance of homogeneous ThO2-UO2-based fuels with respect to safety is generally equal to or better than that of all-uranium fuel. Furthermore, a mixed thorium-uranium dioxide spent fuel appears to be a much more stable waste form than uranium oxide spent fuel.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-99ID13727
- OSTI ID:
- 912291
- Report Number(s):
- INEEL/JOU-04-02014
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 147; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACCIDENTS
ACTINIDES
BURNUP
ECONOMICS
FABRICATION
FUEL CYCLE
In-pile Thermal
MANUFACTURING
Mechanical Behavior
NERI
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
PLUTONIUM
POLONIUM 216
PWR TYPE REACTORS
SAFETY
SPENT FUELS
STABILITY
THORIUM
TRANSIENTS
TRANSMUTATION
Thoria-Urania fuels
URANIUM
URANIUM OXIDES
WASTE FORMS
Waste