Hybrid Nuclear Reactors

Martínez-Val, José M.; Piera, M.; Abánades, A.; Lafuente, Antonio

doi:10.1002/9781118043493.ch38

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…On the contrary, in a subcritical system, the nuclear properties of the nuclear fuel and other components are unable to keep the chain reaction going on, and both the neutron population and the fission reaction rate vanish in a very short time [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last years, many initiatives on nuclear waste transmutation were proposed in order to reduce the long-term radiotoxicity of the wastes by eliminating a high fraction of the transuranic elements (TRU) from the SNF before their final disposal [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]. In this frame, as already anticipated, hybrid fusion-fission systems have an additional degree of freedom because of the independent source: this means that the neutron spectrum can be (reasonably) tailored for the transmutation purposes [1].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Preliminary Assessment of the Transmutation Potentialities for an ITER-like FW Sector Loaded with MA

Scarfò

Caiffi

Chersola

et al. 2015

Glob. J. Energ. Technol. Res. Updat.

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The fusion-fission hybrid reactor is a promising technology that is likely to assume an increasingly important role in the global energy scene in the coming years. This kind of reactor can use both the nuclear fusion and fission processes to produce energy: neutrons from fusion reactions are used to sustain the fission of a sub-critical system. This method allows to have an intrinsically safe facility, with higher efficiency than a fusion reactor itself and with a harder neutron energy spectrum than a fission reactor, which could be suitable for nuclear waste transmutation. This paper, in particular, analyzes a type of hybrid reactor for the transmutation of Minor Actinides (MA). Nuclear waste, in the oxide form, is inserted as an element of the First Wall (FW) of an ITER-like fusion reactor. The aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of the transmutation of the MA characterized by higher long term radiotoxicity into shorter lived nuclides. The neutron transport in a detailed 3D geometrical model of the ITER reactor (B-lite) was performed by MCNP6 code, while the transmutation of the MA loaded in a single element of the FW was performed by SERPENT2 code. A pulsed ITER-like irradiation scenario was used. The analysis, which must be considered as a preliminary feasibility study, lead to very promising results, which could be further improved with a longer DEMO-like irradiation scenario and a larger number of MA loaded (“fission waste”) elements loaded in the FW.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%