Core Design Studies of a Fast Reactor and Accelerator-Driven System for Two-Stage Fast Spectrum Fuel Cycle Option

Lin, Ching Sheng; Park, Tongkyu; Yang, Won Sik

doi:10.13182/nt16-90

Cited by 5 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In order to provide supporting information for the E&S study, a two-stage, fast-spectrum fuel cycle option has recently been proposed aiming at enhancing the natural resource utilization and reducing the nuclear waste to be sent to the geological repository (Lin et al, 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first-stage is a sodium-cooled fast reactor (FR) fuel cycle and the second-stage is a sodiumcooled accelerator driven system (ADS) cycle. Design studies were performed for the FR core (Lin et al, 2015(Lin et al, , 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b and the ADS blanket (Lin et al, 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b. The first-stage FR starts with low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels, but it can be operated without supporting LEU fuels at equilibrium cycle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All fission products from discharged fuels and the separation and fabrication losses of HMs are sent to the geological repository. Fuel cycle analysis results showed that the proposed two-stage fast spectrum fuel cycle option could increase the efficiency of natural resource utilization and reduce the nuclear waste to be sent to the geological repository, compared to the conventional two-stage fuel cycle options based on thermal and fast spectrum systems (Lin et al, 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of ADSs in the second-stage can be minimized by reducing the amount of MA sent to the second-stage ADS through partial incineration of MA in the first-stage FR. The major MA nuclides in the discharged fuels of FR are Np-237 and Am-241 (Lin et al, 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b, which have relatively small fission-to-absorption cross section ratios in the fast energy range and large thermal capture cross sections (Waltar et al, 2012). These properties of MA suggest that a promising option for incinerating MA in the first-stage FR is to convert Np-237 and Am-241 first into fissile nuclides by neutron capture reactions in moderated target assemblies (NEA, 2012) and then burn the resulting fissile nuclides by fission reactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 1 shows the radial core layout of the 1000 MWt sodium-cooled fast reactor concept developed for the proposed two-stage fuel cycle option (Lin et al, 2015(Lin et al, , 2016a(Lin et al, , 2016b. The core consists of 186 drivers, 114 reflectors, 66 radial shields, 9 primary control and 4 secondary control assemblies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A moderated target design for minor actinide transmutation in sodium-cooled fast reactor

Park

Lin

Yang

2016

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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This paper presents a moderated target assembly design study for minor actinide (MA) transmutation in the first-stage sodium-cooled fast reactor (FR) to reduce the amount of MA to be sent to the second-stage accelerator driven system (ADS) in a two-stage FR/ADS fuel cycle option. In order to minimize the local power peaking problem induced by moderated target assemblies, the target assemblies were loaded in the reflector region. Using MA-40Zr target composition and ZrH1.6 moderator, an optimum MA target assembly design was developed to maximize the MA destruction within the practical thermal design limits on the cladding inner wall temperature. Long-lived fission product pins were used as thermal neutron filters to reduce the local power peaking in the adjacent fuel assemblies due to the thermal neutron leakage from the moderated target assembly. The performance characteristics of the FR with moderated target assemblies were evaluated by performing detailed neutronics and thermal-hydraulics analyses.Analysis results showed that the use of MA target assemblies reduces the amount of MA to be sent to ADS by a factor of six without deteriorating safety characteristics. As a result, the electricity sharing of ADS in a nuclear park composed of FRs and ADSs was reduced to 0.3% from 1.9%.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A moderated target design for minor actinide transmutation in sodium-cooled fast reactor

Park

Lin

Yang

2016

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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An enhanced search algorithm for the charged fuel enrichment in equilibrium cycle analysis of REBUS-3

Park

Yang

Kim

2017

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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Fuel cycle analysis of Advanced Burner Reactor with breed-and-burn thorium blanket

Zhang

Fratoni

Greenspan

2018

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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The Seed-and-Blanket (S&B) Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) core concept was proposed for generating a significant fraction of the core power from thorium fueled breed-and-burn (B&B) blankets without exceeding the presently verified radiation damage constraint of 200 Displacement per Atom (DPA). To make beneficial use of the excess neutrons from fast reactors, the S&B core is designed to have an elongated TRU transmuting (or ''TRU burner") seed from which over 20% of the fission neutrons leak into a subcritical thorium blanket that radially surrounds the seed. The seed fuel is recycled while the blanket operates in a once-through breed-and-burn (B&B) mode. The objective of this paper is to compare the fuel cycle performance of the S&B reactor against an Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) and a conventional Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). For the fast reactors (SFR: ABR and S&B) the fuel cycle performance is evaluated based on a 2-stage PWR-SFR energy system while the reference nuclear system is made of once-through PWRs. It was found that relative to the ABR, the S&B core has a lower fuel cycle cost, higher capacity factor, and comparable short-term radioactivity. The discharged seed fuel from the S&B core features lower fissile Pu-to-Pu ratio, higher 238 Pu-to-Pu ratio, higher specific plutonium decay heat, higher spontaneous fission rate, and lower overall material attractiveness for weapon use. Due to the significant amount of 233 U discharged from the breed-and-burn thorium fueled blankets, the S&B core has much higher long-term radioactivity and radiotoxicity. Since the thorium fueled blanket operates in the breed-andburn mode and requires no fuel reprocessing, the discharged blanket fuel is unattractive for weapons application. Compared with a PWR, the S&B core has a lower fuel cycle cost, much lower short-term radioactivity and radiotoxicity but higher long-term values, and higher proliferation resistance for the discharged plutonium. The natural uranium utilization of the 2-stage PWR-S&B system is approximately 60% higher than that of present PWRs; it is few percent higher than that of the 2-stage PWR-ABR system. Approximately 7% of the thorium fed to the blanket is converted into energy, which makes the thorium fuel utilization approximately 12 times the utilization of natural uranium in PWRs. A comprehensive fuel cycle evaluation performed with the methodology developed by the recent U.S Department of Energy's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation and Screening campaign concludes that the PWR-S&B system has similar fuel cycle performance characteristics as the PWR-ABR system. The S&B concept may potentially feature improved economics and resource utilization relative to the ABR.

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Core Design Studies of a Fast Reactor and Accelerator-Driven System for Two-Stage Fast Spectrum Fuel Cycle Option

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

A moderated target design for minor actinide transmutation in sodium-cooled fast reactor

A moderated target design for minor actinide transmutation in sodium-cooled fast reactor

An enhanced search algorithm for the charged fuel enrichment in equilibrium cycle analysis of REBUS-3

Fuel cycle analysis of Advanced Burner Reactor with breed-and-burn thorium blanket

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