Accelerator-Driven Subcritical System for Disposing of the U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Inventory

Abstract

The current United States inventory of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is ~80,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM), including ~131 tons of minor actinides (MAs) and ~669 tons of plutonium. This study describes a conceptual design of an accelerator-driven subcritical (ADS) system for disposing of this SNF inventory by utilizing the 131 tons of MAs inventory and a fraction of the plutonium inventory for energy production, and transmuting some long-lived fission products.

Comparative Analysis of Reactivity Calculations for the CERMET Fueled ADS with Serpent and MCNP6 Codes

“…The code has been widely used in more than 100 institutes around the world for many applications such as spatial lattice homogenization [11], short transient simulation [12], and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis [13]. Moreover, Serpent has also been used to analyze ADS performance [14,15]. Unlike in MCNP, Serpent can perform the depletion calculation in the fixed source mode which meets the need for fuel depletion and minor actinide transmutation capability investigation for the ADS.…”

Assessment of Fast-Spectrum Blanket Lattices for Breeding Fissile Fuel From Thorium and Depleted Uranium in an Externally Driven Sub-Critical Gas-Cooled Pressure Tube Reactor

“…While both HFFRs and ADS are potential options for breeding fissile fuel for thermal-spectrum reactors, many of the proposed design concepts [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] involve the use of fixed blankets that increase in both fissile content and fission power level with time, requiring variable coolant flow rates or reduction of the accelerator or fusion reactor power level, which is neither practical nor cost-effective [29]. In addition, a number of HFFR and ADS concepts [2,4,7,12] involve the use of liquid metal coolants or molten salt blanket fuels/ coolants that have added complexity due to corrosion and handling issues.…”

“…Other types of HFFR/ADS concepts usually implement a fixed blanket [2][3][4][10][11][12], with blanket fuel being removed and replaced in batch-type operations. However, the tradeoff with this approach is that power levels in the blanket will increase with time as the fissile fuel inventory builds up, and thus, the power level of the fusion reactor or the accelerator beam will need to be adjusted continuously, which may be less cost-effective and practical than by allowing continuous operation with periodic online refueling given the expected large capital cost of an accelerator in an ADS or a fusion reactor in an HFFR [22,29]. In addition, by using periodic online refueling, the spent fuel from the ADS or HFFR can be removed such that it will have a more uniform composition and the fissile content will be maximized, making it more practical for reprocessing and recycling rather than dealing with a much larger range in fissile fuel content in spent fuel and a larger inventory of fuel to handle and process at one time if batch refueling was employed.…”