PLENTIFUL ENERGY

More documents

Recommendations

Info

During casting, a partial vacuum (10-25 torr) was drawn above the melt for approximately twenty minutes. From data on evaporation rates of tungsten under increased pressure, it was estimated that the evaporation rate of americium could be reduced two hundred times by casting under a pressure of about 800 torr. Furthermore, based on experience with U-Zr injection casting, the vacuum level in the molds could be as high as 150 torr and the molds would still fill. (The filling technique starts at partial vacuum in the space above the melt and then pressurizes it, drawing the melt up into the glass tubes.) A judicious choice of casting parameters combined with feed stocks free of volatile impurities should make fabrication of minor actinide containing fuels quite viable. The minor-actinide-containing test pin (U-20Pu-1.3Np-1.2Am) was irradiated in EBR-II to 6% burnup, but this test too was prematurely terminated when EBR-II was shut down in 1994. The post-irradiation examinations showed very satisfactory irradiation performance. The micrograph shown in Figure 6-7 does not exhibit any features not seen in other fuels. The radial distribution of the fuel constituents is also shown in Figure 6-7. The uranium, plutonium, and zirconium distribution is very similar to that in the standard U-Pu-Zr fuel. Neptunium does not migrate; it stays put. Americium generally follows zirconium, precipitates in pores, and tends to migrate more in porous fuel. Although this was a limited test, the information it gave was positive, indicating that recycle in IFR all-actinide fuel should raise no new difficulties from spent fuel with only the major isotopes in it. (a) (b) U Pu Zr Am Np 1 mm 0 1 2 Fuel radius from center (mm) Figure 6-7. Post irradiation examinations for minor-actinide-containing fuel at 6% burnup (U-20Pu-1.3Np-1.2Am) 6.10 Other Characteristics Metal fuel greatly eases the requirements placed on the non-reactor portion of the fuel cycle. Fabrication is simple, easy and cheap, processing is done in only a 133
few steps, and the equipment for recycle is compact and inexpensive. Aided by small fissile material flows made possible by its long burnup, the fuel choice thus provides the bases for an economic fuel cycle. The injection-casting fabrication technique illustrated in Figure 6-8 is also amenable to remotization. Figure 6-8. Injection-casting fabrication technique Finally, the characteristics of the fuel increase protection against accidents with major consequences, in stopping such accidents before they can start, and in limiting the extent of the consequences if they do. Metal fuel has a relatively low melting temperature, and has been criticized on this basis. But metal fuel has about ten times better thermal conductivity than oxide fuel, so its temperature rises much more slowly with increases in power, planned or unplanned. This means more margin-to-failure, not less, in overpower accidents. The conductivity also means much lower internal fuel temperature, making possible other unique and important inherent safety characteristics. Finally, the low fuel temperature acts to limit the energy release in any serious accident where fuel melts, shutting the reactor down with limited consequences. But all this is the subject of the next chapter. There we will discuss the safety attributes of the IFR in considerable detail. 6.11 Summary Although it is based upon EBR-II experience and the certainty of its behavior relies upon the decades of experience with related fuel designs in EBR-II, IFR fuel 134
Page 1 and 2:
PLENTIFUL ENERGY The Story of the I
Page 3 and 4:
Copyright © 2011 Charles E. Till a
Page 6 and 7:
CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
Page 8 and 9:
CHAPTER 10 APPLICATION OF PYROPROCE
Page 10 and 11:
FOREWORD On a breezy December day i
Page 12 and 13:
CHAPTER 1 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATO
Page 14 and 15:
even now is straining the limits of
Page 16 and 17:
with events and time. Till saw the
Page 18 and 19:
it, I saw how a national laboratory
Page 20 and 21:
Figure 1-2. West stands of the Stag
Page 22 and 23:
development of nuclear power for ci
Page 24 and 25:
depended on U.S. ability to maintai
Page 26 and 27:
construction funding kept increasin
Page 28 and 29:
faced a nightmarish combination of
Page 30 and 31:
concept in the next decade.) In sti
Page 32 and 33:
was based on EBR-I experience, but
Page 34 and 35:
Figure 1-9. Experimental Breeder Re
Page 36 and 37:
Figure 1-11. Rendering of the EBR-I
Page 38 and 39:
performance. But the decision had b
Page 40 and 41:
its shakedown in early years it jus
Page 42 and 43:
sense primarily a commercial power
Page 44 and 45:
without electrical generation, the
Page 46 and 47:
Its purpose was to demonstrate the
Page 48 and 49:
of each period, which the managemen
Page 50 and 51:
CHAPTER 2 THE INTEGRAL FAST REACTOR
Page 52 and 53:
A line had been pursued that the re
Page 54 and 55:
The IFR refining process also produ
Page 56 and 57:
director of Argonne a year or two b
Page 58 and 59:
eporting on nuclear power developme
Page 60 and 61:
A few weeks later, the mid-term ele
Page 62 and 63:
2.6 Summary In late 1983, the line
Page 64 and 65:
Argonne would be. My Ph.D. at Imper
Page 66 and 67:
I had worked at the United Kingdom
Page 68 and 69:
hadn‘t bothered us with it. But t
Page 70 and 71:
But I had gone over and over the on
Page 72 and 73:
laboratories.‖ Incidentally, late
Page 74 and 75:
Argonne by this time was one of sev
Page 76 and 77:
3.1.2 Life at the Laboratory in the
Page 78 and 79:
An anecdote: In the cooperative arr
Page 80 and 81:
Cycle Facility‖ went. We pushed i
Page 82 and 83:
(LMFBR), which assumed a very rapid
Page 84 and 85:
the pool was a settled issue; it wa
Page 86 and 87:
During the early stage of the IFR p
Page 88 and 89:
scientific work, not on non-essenti
Page 90 and 91:
e generally held, even as facts inc
Page 92 and 93:
cf per day from Canada via pipeline
Page 94 and 95: serious, and it is made more seriou
Page 96 and 97: global economy. The LWR, and the Ad
Page 98 and 99: supply 11%, and one, the world‘s
Page 100 and 101: Fatih Birol, has recently been quot
Page 102 and 103: gas production of little use in the
Page 104 and 105: expenditures during a decade starti
Page 106 and 107: thousand tonnes in one large increm
Page 108 and 109: But the principal line of developme
Page 110 and 111: Tar sands and oil shale recovery ar
Page 112 and 113: 14. W. H. Ziegler, C. J. Campbell,
Page 114 and 115: Argonne had been a part of the deve
Page 116 and 117: Breaches or holes in the fuel cladd
Page 118 and 119: waste. For efficiency in uranium us
Page 120 and 121: Further, as a metal, sodium does no
Page 122 and 123: to the boundaries and many leak fro
Page 124 and 125: is debatable, it remains our belief
Page 126 and 127: CHAPTER 6 IFR FUEL CHARACTERISTICS,
Page 128 and 129: To do this, an extraordinarily simp
Page 130 and 131: Further cementing the decision was
Page 132 and 133: the AEC, but the reactor operation
Page 134 and 135: hands-on access needed to accomplis
Page 136 and 137: temperature. However, a very substa
Page 138 and 139: It turned out that the high-plutoni
Page 140 and 141: In the column ―Pu content % heavy
Page 142 and 143: 40 start-ups and shutdowns 5 15% ov
Page 146 and 147: is in fact a new fuel. Plutonium-ba
Page 148 and 149: 8. G. L. Hofman and L. C. Walters,
Page 150 and 151: characteristics necessary for this.
Page 152 and 153: exchangers, and the steam generator
Page 154 and 155: experiments, as mentioned; this has
Page 156 and 157: sufficient to allow radioactive rel
Page 158 and 159: In the IFR, this loss of the coolin
Page 160 and 161: Figure7- 2. Reactor outlet temperat
Page 162 and 163: for thermal expansion of heavy stru
Page 164 and 165: power to shut down power is basical
Page 166 and 167: criticality. The debris is in the f
Page 168 and 169: 7.10.2 The EBR-I Partial Meltdown T
Page 170 and 171: 7.11 Licensing Implications What ar
Page 172 and 173: The sodium flowing into the steam g
Page 174 and 175: [15] Provisions are also made to co
Page 176 and 177: disassembly comes, it is with a rea
Page 178 and 179: CHAPTER 8 THE PYROPROCESS In the ne
Page 180 and 181: EBR-II purposes, and it established
Page 182 and 183: valuable fuel constituents, uranium
Page 184 and 185: and materials and it had been renam
Page 186 and 187: The first operation is done in the
Page 188 and 189: into the receiver crucible. The hea
Page 190 and 191: In the final step, the pins are arr
Page 192 and 193: Spent Fuel Processed, kg effective
Page 194 and 195:
products, highly radioactive and se
Page 196 and 197:
its own bayonet-style partial inter
Page 198 and 199:
If the bond sodium along with the s
Page 200 and 201:
CHAPTER 9 THE BASIS OF THE ELECTROR
Page 202 and 203:
Whether or not a given reaction can
Page 204 and 205:
9.3 Kinetics of the Reactions Chemi
Page 206 and 207:
The exponential exp((E f -E b )/RT)
Page 208 and 209:
The electrorefining process brings
Page 210 and 211:
cathode operation. Once the solutio
Page 212 and 213:
Table 9-2. Measured data and calcul
Page 214 and 215:
All four measurements show that eve
Page 216 and 217:
The free energy of the reaction of
Page 218 and 219:
2. At an actinide chloride ratio of
Page 220 and 221:
CHAPTER 10 APPLICATION OF PYROPROCE
Page 222 and 223:
10.2 Electrolytic Reduction Step 10
Page 224 and 225:
The pyrochemical process simply sup
Page 226 and 227:
Figure 10-1. Electrolytic reduction
Page 228 and 229:
The distribution of fuel constituen
Page 230 and 231:
an electrorefiner with a 5001,000 k
Page 232 and 233:
aqueous reprocessing plant. The eco
Page 234 and 235:
Li metal at the cathode. Lithium me
Page 236 and 237:
4. D. W. Dees and J. P. Ackerman,
Page 238 and 239:
Our intent for the IFR technology w
Page 240 and 241:
dose to any member of the public mu
Page 242 and 243:
IFR process, as we shall see, does
Page 244 and 245:
Relative Radiological Toxicity uran
Page 246 and 247:
doses from Tc-99 and I-129 equilibr
Page 248 and 249:
Fraction of Initial Actinide, % pro
Page 250 and 251:
long-lived fission products and tra
Page 252 and 253:
to decay to the point where they co
Page 254 and 255:
References 1. ―Nuclear Waste Poli
Page 256 and 257:
12.1 Introduction Assessment of a p
Page 258 and 259:
History provides empirical evidence
Page 260 and 261:
program offered nations help with n
Page 262 and 263:
Other nations are recycling their s
Page 264 and 265:
uranium-233 cycle has been half-hea
Page 266 and 267:
electrorefiner salt. And this, of c
Page 268 and 269:
those concentrations in making the
Page 270 and 271:
chance of ―pre-ignition‖ leadin
Page 272 and 273:
It is now known that the plutonium
Page 274 and 275:
12.8 Monitoring of Processes Always
Page 276 and 277:
[18] In it he shows that with a spo
Page 278 and 279:
Such a system tracks the quantity a
Page 280 and 281:
weapons grade plutonium. Levels of
Page 282 and 283:
12.13 Summary In IFR technology the
Page 284 and 285:
12. T. P. McLaughlin, et al., ―A
Page 286 and 287:
The earliest fast reactors designed
Page 288 and 289:
India, too, has successfully operat
Page 290 and 291:
levels, actually higher than the di
Page 292 and 293:
for the backend of the fuel cycle,
Page 294 and 295:
$/lb Uranium Price, $/lb U3O8 the f
Page 296 and 297:
the once-through fuel cycle. Howeve
Page 298 and 299:
$/kg 1200 1000 $1000/kg Rep Cost Pu
Page 300 and 301:
Table 13-7. Summary Comparison of F
Page 302 and 303:
fabrication. This, along with a low
Page 304 and 305:
Fissile Cost, $/gm-fissile Fuel Cyc
Page 306 and 307:
13.6 System Aspects The previous se
Page 308 and 309:
waste streams have no long-term dec
Page 310 and 311:
5. S. C. Chetal, ―India‘s Fast
Page 312 and 313:
capacity over this century, in a sy
Page 314 and 315:
thermal properties of NaK—the boi
Page 316 and 317:
It is suspected that the lead corro
Page 318 and 319:
Neutron Yield, Eta Value A = number
Page 320 and 321:
to maintain a hard spectrum, the fu
Page 322 and 323:
Table 14-3. Effects of fuel pin dia
Page 324 and 325:
Fuel Volume Fraction have a large e
Page 326 and 327:
neutron leakages from the core are
Page 328 and 329:
like breeding, does increase such d
Page 330 and 331:
substantial advantage to start with
Page 332 and 333:
Doubling Time, yrs the reactivity c
Page 334 and 335:
14.7 Worldwide Fast Reactor Experie
Page 336 and 337:
limit to its life. The ingenuity of
Page 338 and 339:
Nuclear Capacity, GWe the replaceme
Page 340 and 341:
14.9 How to Deploy Pyroprocessing P
Page 342 and 343:
construction projects. They may see
Page 344 and 345:
inferior to sodium in their thermal
Page 346:
5. Federation of American Scientist
Page 349 and 350:
Supporting the reactor design and c
Page 352 and 353:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In beginning this
Page 354 and 355:
APPENDIX A DETAILED EXPLANATION OF
Page 356 and 357:
The actinide metals (uranium, pluto
Page 358 and 359:
As noted above, the interactions ri
Page 360 and 361:
3. Equilibrium coefficients give th
Page 362 and 363:
ion is created at the anode. Bulk t
Page 364 and 365:
proceed spontaneously. If the magni
Page 366 and 367:
product chlorides are highly stable
Page 368 and 369:
increases with increasing temperatu
Page 370 and 371:
Equilibrium in a chemical system is
Page 372 and 373:
Exp(-ΔG o /RT) = [ U / Pu ] [ U /
Page 374 and 375:
―in solution.‖ More Pu added to
Page 376 and 377:
appropriate values are used for the
Page 378 and 379:
A.9.5 The Second Cathode Regime: On
Page 380 and 381:
in the real world. Uranium dendrite
Page 382 and 383:
This is the significant number. The
Page 384 and 385:
For those who are curious, the elec
Page 386 and 387:
of concentration of uranium chlorid
Page 388 and 389:
agreement with the measured ratio w
Page 390 and 391:
eference 7. The important calculati
Page 392 and 393:
as well. The numbers were obtained
Page 394 and 395:
Run3: Plutonium isn’t, Uranium is
Page 396 and 397:
The final actinide chloride ratios
Page 398:
values of several of the constants
Page 401 and 402:
HCDA HFEF HM HWR HTR IAEA ICRP IEA
Page 404:
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Dr. CHARLES E. TI
show all

PLENTIFUL ENERGY

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?