Session: 03-02 Adv Reactors and Fusion

Paper Number: 65406

Start Time: August 5, 2021, 02:30 PM

65406 - Conceptual Study of Neutron Physics of Nuclear Fuel Cycle for Ceramic Fast Reactor 

To make the nuclear fuel cycle more economical and convenient, as well as prevent nuclear proliferation, the conceptual study of a simple high-temperature dry reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) for a ceramic fast reactor is proposed in this paper. This simple high-temperature dry (HT-dry) reprocessing includes the Atomics International Reduction Oxidation (AIROX) process and purification method for rare-earth elements. After removing the part of fission products from SNF by a HT-dry reprocessing without fine separation, the remaining nuclides and some uranium are fabricated into fresh fuel which can be used back to the ceramic fast reactor. Based on the ceramic coolant fast reactor, we studied neutron physics of nuclear fuel cycle which consists operation of ceramic reactor, removing part of fission products from SNF and preparation of fresh fuels for many time. The parameters of the study include effective multiplication factor (K_eff), beam density, and nuclide mass for different ways to remove the fission products from SNF. With the increase in burnup time, the trend of increasing ²³⁹Pu gradually slows down, and the trend of ²³⁵U gradually decreases and become balanced. For multiple removal of part of fission products in the nuclear fuel cycle, the higher the removal, the larger the initial K_eff.

Presenting Author: Xuesong Yan Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Authors:

Xuesong Yan Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yaling Zhang Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yucui Gao Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences