Designing a heterogeneous subcritical nuclear reactor with thorium-based fuel

Medina-Castro, Diego; Hernández-Adame, Pablo Luis; León, Consuelo Letechipía de; Sajó-Bohus, L.; Vega-Carrillo, Héctor René

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2016.07.002

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The ADS, in which high-flux neutrons are produced by spallation reactions with high-current proton accelerator, is designed particularly to produce energy and to transmute high-level nuclear wastes. The ADS availability has been evaluated 22 – 24 and a preliminary ADS facility for studying nuclear transmutation is now being constructed in China 25 , 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of long-lived fission products in an advanced nuclear energy system

Sun

Luo

Lan

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Disposal of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) produced in reactors has been paid a lot attention for sustainable and clean nuclear energy. Although a few transmutation means have been proposed to address this issue, there are still scientific and/or engineering challenges to achieve efficient transmutation of LLFPs. In this study, we propose a novel concept of advanced nuclear energy system (ANES) for transmuting LLFPs efficiently without isotopic separation. The ANES comprises intense photoneutron source (PNS) and subcritical reactor, which consist of lead–bismuth (Pb-Bi) layer, beryllium (Be) layer, and fuel, LLFPs and shield assemblies. The PNS is produced by bombarding radioactive cesium and iodine target with a laser-Compton scattering (LCS) γ-ray beam. We investigate the effect of the ANES system layout on transmutation efficiency by Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that a proper combination of the Pb-Bi layer and the Be layer can increase the utilization efficiency of the PNS by a factor of ~ 10, which helps to decrease by almost the same factor the LCS γ-beam intensity required for driving the ANES. Supposing that the ANES operates over 20 years at a normal thermal power of 500 MWt, five LLFPs including 99Tc, 129I, 107Pd, 137Cs and 79Se could be transmuted by more than 30%. Their effective half-lives thus decrease drastically from ~ 106 to less than 102 years. It is suggested that this successful implementation of the ANES paves the avenue towards practical transmutation of LLFPs without isotopic separation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of long-lived fission products in an advanced nuclear energy system

Sun

Luo

Lan

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ADS, in which high-flux neutrons are produced by spallation reactions with high-current proton accelerator, is designed particularly to produce energy and to transmute high-level nuclear wastes. The ADS availability has been evaluated [16][17][18] and a preliminary ADS facility for studying nuclear transmutation is now being constructed in China 19,20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of Long-Lived Fission Products in an Advanced Nuclear Energy System

Sun¹,

Luo²,

Lan³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Disposal of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) produced in reactors has been paid a lot attention for sustainable and clean nuclear energy. Although a few transmutation means have been proposed to address this issue, there are still scientific and/or engineering challenges to achieve efficient transmutation of LLFPs. In this study, we propose a novel concept of advanced nuclear energy system (ANES) for transmuting LLFPs efficiently without isotopic separation. The ANES comprises intense photoneutron source (PNS) and subcritical reactor, which consist of lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) layer, beryllium (Be) layer, and fuel, LLFPs and shield assemblies. The PNS is produced by bombarding radioactive cesium and iodine target with a laser-Compton scattering (LCS) γ-ray beam. We investigate the effect of the ANES system layout on transmutation efficiency by Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that a proper combination of the Pb-Bi layer and the Be layer can increase the utilization efficiency of the PNS by a factor of ~10, which helps to decrease by almost the same factor the LCS γ-beam intensity required for driving the ANES. Supposing that the ANES operates over 20 years at a normal thermal power of 500 MWt, five LLFPs including 99Tc, 129I, 107Pd, 137Cs and 79Se could be transmuted by more than 30%. Their effective half-lives thus decrease drastically from ~106 to less than 102 years. It is suggested that this successful implementation of the ANES paves the avenue towards practical transmutation of LLFPs without isotopic separation.

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“…Thorium based fuel cycle has great potential in improving the sustainability of nuclear energy. Thorium based fuel cycle will indeed produce considerably less plutonium and minor actinides than conventional fuel cycle [4,5,6]. Thus, developing the utilization of thorium-based fuel cycle for RBWR will be promising.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutronic Analysis of a Thorium-Fueled Reduced Moderation Boiling Water Reactor

Falaakh¹,

Agung²,

Harto³

2018

International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology

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Abstract-A study about Resource Renewable Boiling Water Reactor (RBWR) core, a reduced moderation boiling water reactor that features the breeding ratio larger than 1 was conducted. This study focuses on the neutronic performances of the core and aims to investigate the core sustainability when using thorium as the main fertile fuel. A fuel-self-sustaining core with high burnup set as the design target. 233 U+Th were used as the initial fuel, and the impact of initial fissile ( 233 U) content in the core fissile zone on the core neutronic performances was evaluated. Parameters related to the neutronic performances such as the core burnup, fissile breeding, and fissile inventory ratio (FIR) are considered in this study. From these results, it was confirmed that it is feasible to create a selfsustaining fuel cycle system using thorium fueled RBWR. However, there was a trade-off between the core burnup and fissile breeding that can be a significant challenge in the development of this system. Evaluating the other design variables may be considered to address this challenge. The further study to analyze the safety performances of the core is required to arrive at a safe and reliable reactor system.

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Designing a heterogeneous subcritical nuclear reactor with thorium-based fuel

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Transmutation of long-lived fission products in an advanced nuclear energy system

Transmutation of long-lived fission products in an advanced nuclear energy system

Transmutation of Long-Lived Fission Products in an Advanced Nuclear Energy System

Neutronic Analysis of a Thorium-Fueled Reduced Moderation Boiling Water Reactor

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