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COMPLETE DOCUMENT (1862 kb) - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

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Table II.10 Core performance at the equilibrium cycle of metal -fuelled fast rea ctor<br />

Non-recycle<br />

Self-recycle<br />

2%MAs<br />

enriched<br />

5% MAs<br />

enriched<br />

MAs/RE concentration 1) (wt%) 0.0/0.0 0.6/0.3 2.0/0.9 5.0/2.0<br />

Pu concentration (wt%, IC/OC) 2) 13.5/21.2 14.0/22.8 14.2/23.3 13.8/23.0<br />

Burn-up reactivity (%∆k/k) 2.76 1.24 1.09 0.33<br />

Internal conversion ratio 0.85 0.89 0.89 0.9<br />

ß eff (×10 -3 ) 3.65 3.47 3.39 3.24<br />

Void reactivity (%∆k/k) 1.78 2.03 2.19 2.5<br />

Doppler constant (×10 -3 Tdk/dT) -4.62 -4.18 -3.70 -2.94<br />

Power coefficient (¢/%-power) -0.191 -0.163 -0.118 -0.036<br />

1) concentration: wt% of (heavy metals +RE)<br />

2) IC: Inner core, OC: Outer core<br />

2.3.4 Transmutation of minor actinides and fission products in dedicated systems<br />

Dedicated transmutation systems are being studied at JAERI [88-90] and CEA [91] based on<br />

a strategy named the double strata fuel cycle concept (or multi component concept). The double strata<br />

concept is to consider a P&T fuel cycle (second stratum) separated completely from the conventional<br />

fuel cycle for commercial power reactors (first stratum) as illustrated schematically in Figure II.15.<br />

The first stratum is devoted to the electricity production and consists of standard power<br />

reactors (LWR-UO 2 , LWR-MOX and FR), fuel fabrication plants and reprocessing plants. The U fuel<br />

irradiated in LWRs is reprocessed and the recovered Pu is recycled in LWR-MOX and in fast reactors.<br />

HLW from the reprocessing goes to the second stratum.<br />

In the second stratum, MAs (Np, Am, Cm) and long-lived fission products are partitioned<br />

from HLW to be fabricated into fuels and targets. They are irradiated in dedicated systems for<br />

transmutation, and then reprocessed for multiple recycling.<br />

There are several advantages in using dedicated transmutation systems compared with<br />

recycling MAs into commercial power reactors. Because of much lower mass flow in the P&T cycle, it<br />

could be on a correspondingly smaller scale than the main cycle. Its separation from the main powerproducing<br />

cycle, and the small number of units required, would allow the extensive innovation in fuel<br />

fabrication, core design and reprocessing technology needed to optimise this part of the overall system<br />

[91-93]. It would also avoid burdening the main cycle with the problems associated with higher<br />

radioactivity and decay heat, and reduced safety margins in reactor physics parameters [94].<br />

The P&T cycle could be made very compact by co-locating the entire facilities. This would<br />

minimise the transportation of nuclides that are troublesome with respect to waste management, and<br />

confine them effectively in the P&T fuel cycle.<br />

163

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