Premium
Utilization of nuclear waste plutonium and thorium mixed fuel in candu reactors
Author(s) -
Şahin Sümer,
Şarer Başar,
Çelik Yurdunaz
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.3464
Subject(s) - plutonium , plutonium 240 , burnup , thorium fuel cycle , nuclear engineering , fissile material , mox fuel , criticality , spent nuclear fuel , plutonium 239 , fuel element failure , uranium 233 , actinide , uranium , radioactive waste , environmental science , nuclear fuel , neutron poison , waste management , radiochemistry , chemistry , neutron , nuclear physics , nuclear chemistry , fission , neutron flux , engineering , physics
Summary Spent nuclear fuel out of conventional light water reactors contains significant amount of even plutonium isotopes, so called reactor grade plutonium. Excellent neutron economy of Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors can further burn reactor grade plutonium, which has been used as a booster fissile fuel material in form of mixed ThO 2 /PuO 2 fuel in a CANDU fuel bundle in order to assure reactor criticality. The paper investigates incineration of nuclear waste and the prospects of exploitation of rich world thorium reserves in CANDU reactors. In the present work, the criticality calculations have been performed with 3‐D geometrical modeling of a CANDU reactor, where the structure of all fuel rods and bundles is represented individually. In the course of time calculations, nuclear transformation and radioactive decay of all actinide elements as well as fission products are considered. Four different fuel compositions have been selected for investigations: ① 95% thoria (ThO 2 ) + 5% PuO 2 , ② 90% ThO 2 + 10% PuO 2 , ③ 85% ThO 2 + 15% PuO 2 and ④ 80% ThO 2 + 20% PuO 2 . The latter is used for the purpose of denaturing the new 233 U fuel with 238 U. The behavior of the criticality k ∞ and the burnup values of the reactor have been pursued by full power operation for ~10 years. Among the investigated four modes, 90% ThO 2 + 10% PuO 2 seems a reasonable choice. This mixed fuel would continue make possible extensive exploitation of thorium resources with respect to reactor criticality. Reactor will run with the same fuel charge for ~7 years and allow a fuel burnup ~55 GWd/t. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.