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Title: HTGR Technology Family Assessment for a Range of Fuel Cycle Missions

Abstract

This report examines how the HTGR technology family can provide options for the once through, modified open cycle (MOC), or full recycle fuel cycle strategies. The HTGR can serve all the fuel cycle missions that an LWR can; both are thermal reactors. Additional analyses are warranted to determine if HTGR “full recycle” service could provide improved consumption of transuranic (TRU) material than LWRs (as expected), to analyze the unique proliferation resistance issues associated with the “pebble bed” approach, and to further test and analyze methods to separate TRISO-coated fuel particles from graphite and/or to separate used HTGR fuel meat from its TRISO coating. The feasibility of these two separation issues is not in doubt, but further R&D could clarify and reduce the cost and enable options not adequately explored at present. The analyses here and the now-demonstrated higher fuel burnup tests (after the illustrative designs studied here) should enable future MOC and full recycle HTGR concepts to more rapidly consume TRU, thereby offering waste management advantages. Interest in “limited separation” or “minimum fuel treatment” separation approaches motivates study of impurity-tolerant fuel fabrication.

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
Sponsoring Org.:
DOE - NE
OSTI Identifier:
991889
Report Number(s):
INL/CON-10-20137
TRN: US1007582
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC07-05ID14517
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 11th Information Exchange Meeting on Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning and Transmutation,San Francisco,11/01/2010,11/05/2010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; ACTINIDES; BURNUP; FABRICATION; FISSION PRODUCTS; FUEL CYCLE; FUEL PARTICLES; GRAPHITE; MEAT; PROLIFERATION; THERMAL REACTORS; TRANSMUTATION; WASTE MANAGEMENT; HTGR; Recycling; Reprocessing

Citation Formats

Piet, Steven J, Bays, Samuel E, and Soelberg, Nick R. HTGR Technology Family Assessment for a Range of Fuel Cycle Missions. United States: N. p., 2010. Web.
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Piet, Steven J, Bays, Samuel E, & Soelberg, Nick R. HTGR Technology Family Assessment for a Range of Fuel Cycle Missions. United States.
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Piet, Steven J, Bays, Samuel E, and Soelberg, Nick R. Mon . "HTGR Technology Family Assessment for a Range of Fuel Cycle Missions". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/991889.
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@article{osti_991889,
title = {HTGR Technology Family Assessment for a Range of Fuel Cycle Missions},
author = {Piet, Steven J and Bays, Samuel E and Soelberg, Nick R},
abstractNote = {This report examines how the HTGR technology family can provide options for the once through, modified open cycle (MOC), or full recycle fuel cycle strategies. The HTGR can serve all the fuel cycle missions that an LWR can; both are thermal reactors. Additional analyses are warranted to determine if HTGR “full recycle” service could provide improved consumption of transuranic (TRU) material than LWRs (as expected), to analyze the unique proliferation resistance issues associated with the “pebble bed” approach, and to further test and analyze methods to separate TRISO-coated fuel particles from graphite and/or to separate used HTGR fuel meat from its TRISO coating. The feasibility of these two separation issues is not in doubt, but further R&D could clarify and reduce the cost and enable options not adequately explored at present. The analyses here and the now-demonstrated higher fuel burnup tests (after the illustrative designs studied here) should enable future MOC and full recycle HTGR concepts to more rapidly consume TRU, thereby offering waste management advantages. Interest in “limited separation” or “minimum fuel treatment” separation approaches motivates study of impurity-tolerant fuel fabrication.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/991889}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2010},
month = {11}
}
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Other availability
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