A pan-shape transuranic burner core with a low sodium void worth

Abstract

A 1575 MWt transuranic (TRU) burner reactor core with a low sodium void worth has been developed by devising a pan-shaped active core design. The core consists of two types of fule subassemblies that differ in the height of the fueled regions. This strategy has allowed an extreme "pancaking" of the inner core region, while the radial dimension increase is limited by placing longer Fuels in the outer core region. The fuel cycle analysis has been performed in the equilibrium cycle, consisting of external feed fuel with reprocessed typical PWR spent fuel and fissile makeup with recycled TRU elements. The neutronic performance characteristics obtained from the equilibrium cycle analysis show that it would work safely as well as economically, as measured in terms of burnup reactivity swing, peak power density, Doppler coefficient, TRU burning and sodium void worth. The core has relatively low double power peaks in both the inner and outer cores without enrichment zoning, and this enables to make an active core volume smaller. The developed TRU burner core has been subjected to an extensive parametric study on the reprocessing schemes. investigations are given for sodium void worth, transmutation capability, burnup reactivity swing and minor actinide (MA) contents. Through this series of study, a variant of the TRU burner core that is aimed at preferentially burning MA has been determined. This MA burner core uses U-235 as well as the homogeneously recycled TRU elements. This MA burner core consumes 140 kg of MA per year, without penalizing the sodium void reactivity observed in the TRU burner core. Finally, the combined introduction of developed TRU and MA burner cores shows the functional effectiveness of reducing PWR discharged TRU inventory. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.