02.05.2014 Views

Search - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

Search - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

Search - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

SAFETY ANALYSIS OF NITRIDE FUELS IN<br />

CORES DEDICATED TO WASTE TRANSMUTATION<br />

Jan Wallenius, Kamil Tucek, Waclaw Gudowski<br />

Department of <strong>Nuclear</strong> and Reactor Physics<br />

Royal Institute of Technology<br />

100 44 Stockholm, Sweden<br />

Abstract<br />

We have investigated safety characteristics of nitride fuels in critical and sub-critical cores dedicated<br />

to waste transmutation. It is shown that decomposition of actinide nitrides followed by escape of<br />

nitrogen gas from the core will not lead to positive reactivity feedback, provided that a) 15 N enriched<br />

nitrogen is used, and b) pin pitches are sufficiently large. Hence the reason for nitride fuels not being<br />

licensed for use in Phenix is not valid in the context of P&T, where use of 15 N enriched nitrogen in<br />

nitride fuel fabrication is a prerequisite, and neutron economy is much less constrained than in FBRs.<br />

Consequently, the main safety concerns related to use of nitride fuels can be eliminated by proper<br />

core and fuel design.<br />

491

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!