A Heterogeneous Sodium Fast Reactor Designed to Transmute Minor Actinide Actinide Waste Isotopes into Plutonium Fuel

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Nuclear Technology

OSTI ID:1008018

Bays, Samuel E

An axial heterogeneous sodium fast reactor design is developed for converting minor actinide waste isotopes into plutonium fuel. The reactor design incorporates zirconium hydride moderating rods in an axial blanket above the active core. The blanket design traps the active core’s axial leakage for the purpose of transmuting Am-241 into Pu-238. This Pu-238 is then co-recycled with the spent driver fuel to make new driver fuel. Because Pu-238 is significantly more fissile than Am-241 in a fast neutron spectrum, the fissile worth of the initial minor actinide material is upgraded by its preconditioning via transmutation in the axial targets. Because, the Am-241 neutron capture worth is significantly stronger in a moderated epithermal spectrum than the fast spectrum, the axial targets serve as a neutron trap which recovers the axial leakage lost by the active core. The sodium fast reactor proposed by this work is designed as an overall transuranic burner. Therefore, a low transuranic conversion ratio is achieved by a degree of core flattening which increases axial leakage. Unlike a traditional “pancake” design, neutron leakage is recovered by the axial target/blanket system. This heterogeneous core design is constrained to have sodium void and Doppler reactivity worth similar to that of an equivalent homogeneous design. Because minor actinides are irradiated only once in the axial target region; elemental partitioning is not required. This fact enables the use of metal targets with electrochemical reprocessing. Therefore, the irradiation environment of both drivers and targets was constrained to ensure applicability of the established experience database for metal alloy sodium fast reactor fuels.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - NE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1008018
• Report Number(s): INL/JOU-08-14154; NUTYBB; TRN: US1101338
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology, Vol. 173, Issue 2; ISSN 0029-5450
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ACTINIDES
ALLOYS
CAPTURE
CONVERSION RATIO
DESIGN
FAST NEUTRONS
FAST REACTORS
IRRADIATION
NEUTRON LEAKAGE
NEUTRON REACTIONS
NEUTRONS
PLUTONIUM
REACTIVITY WORTHS
REPROCESSING
SODIUM
TARGETS
TRANSMUTATION
WASTES
ZIRCONIUM HYDRIDES
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
minor actinide
sodium fast reactor
transmutation
transuranic