Computational Neutronics Methods and Transmutation Performance Analyses for Light Water Reactors
The urgency for addressing repository impacts has grown in the past few years as a result of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) accumulation from commercial nuclear power plants. One obvious path that has been explored by many is to eliminate the transuranic (TRU) inventory from the SNF thus reducing the need for additional long term repository storage sites. One strategy for achieving this is to burn the separated TRU elements in the currently operating U.S. Light Water Reactor (LWR) fleet. Many studies have explored the viability of this strategy by loading a percentage of LWR cores with TRU in the form of either Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuels or Inert Matrix Fuels (IMF). A task was undertaken at INL to establish specific technical capabilities to perform neutronics analyses in order to further assess several key issues related to the viability of thermal recycling. The initial computational study reported here is focused on direct thermal recycling of IMF fuels in a heterogeneous Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) bundle design containing Plutonium, Neptunium, Americium, and Curium (IMF-PuNpAmCm) in a multi-pass strategy using legacy 5 year cooled LWR SNF. In addition to this initial high-priority analysis, three other alternate analyses with different TRU vectors in IMF pins were performed. These analyses provide comparison of direct thermal recycling of PuNpAmCm, PuNpAm, PuNp, and Pu.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-99ID13727
- OSTI ID:
- 919552
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-07-12472
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AMERICIUM
Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative
CURIUM
IMF-Pu
IMF-PuNp
IMF-PuNpAm
IMF-PuNpAmCm
Inert Matrix Fuel
NEPTUNIUM
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OXIDES
PERFORMANCE
PLUTONIUM
PWR TYPE REACTORS
Pressurized Water Reactor
RECYCLING
STORAGE
Spent Nuclear Fuel
TRANSMUTATION
Transuranics
VECTORS
VIABILITY
WATER