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Spent fuel characteristics for thorium‐uranium recycle in fluoride‐salt‐cooled solid‐fuel fast reactor
Author(s) -
Peng Yu,
Zhu Guifeng,
Zou Yang,
Niu Miaomiao,
Xu Hongjie
Publication year - 2021
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.6619
Subject(s) - thorium fuel cycle , spent nuclear fuel , thorium , decay heat , waste management , burnup , transuranium element , nuclear fuel cycle , uranium , mox fuel , nuclear engineering , liquid fluoride thorium reactor , environmental science , nuclear reactor core , solid fuel , actinide , nuclear fuel , radioactive waste , nuclear chemistry , engineering , chemistry , materials science , combustion , metallurgy , organic chemistry
Summary Fluoride‐salt‐cooled solid‐fuel fast reactor (LSFR) with thorium‐based fuel could complete a self‐sustaining core that fulfills long‐term energy demands. This paper further investigated the LSFR core sustainability of breeding thorium and the spent fuel characteristics for closed fuel cycle. Two fuel recycle strategies were proposed in this paper, including U recycling and U/Pu/MA recycling, to evaluate the physical effects caused by these recycling some highly radiotoxic and heat producing minor actinides. Based on the two fuel management strategies, the sustainability of breeding thorium and the spent fuel characteristics from the 0th cycle core to the 8th cycle core were assessed, including radioactivity, radiotoxicity, and decay heat. It was found that both recycle strategies accomplished good breeding performance and reduced the 233 U fuel inventory, implying that recycling nuclides could partially replace 233 U. The U/Pu/MA recycling scheme possessed slightly better advantages in lower 233 U loading and breeding performance, but this scheme accumulated more transuranium elements with cycle burnup because the LSFR core could not transmute MA for its relatively soft fast energy spectrum. In spite of this, the level of radioactivity, radiotoxicity, and decay heat for the discharge fuel in the 8th cycle core was either lower than or comparable to that of traditional PWR. It is worthwhile mentioning that between 1000 and 100 000 years the radioactivity, radiotoxicity, and decay heat production tend to grow again, which might require sophisticated storage design for LSFR core with thorium‐based fuel in the future.