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Fraction of Initial Actinide, % produces fresh actinides with irradiation. The fissile isotopes, such as Pu-239 and Pu-241, can be burned readily, but fertile isotopes, such as Pu-242 and various americium and curium isotopes, go on building up as burnup progresses. They have no reactivity value in a thermal spectrum and are useless there as fuel. Table 11-2. Transmutation Probabilities (in %) Isotope Thermal Spectrum Fast Spectrum Np-237 3 27 Pu-238 7 70 Pu-239 63 85 Pu-240 1 55 PU-241 75 87 Pu-242 1 53 Am-241 1 21 Am-242m 75 94 Am-243 1 23 Cm-242 1 10 Cm-243 78 94 Cm-244 4 33 60 50 40 Pu-239 Pu-242 30 Pu-240 20 10 Pu-241 Pu-238 Cm Am 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Equivalent Burnup, MWD/kg-eq Figure 11-4. Isotopic evolution of actinides in thermal spectrum 237
Equilibrium compositions evolved through continuous recycle, starting from a natural uranium feed, are shown in Table 11-3. [13-14] For simplicity in calculation, they are compositions reached without regard to maintaining criticality or other operational characteristics. In the thermal spectrum, all the non-fissile isotopes (the ones with even numbers) are reactivity ―poisons‖ (i.e., they absorb neutrons without releasing any new ones by fissioning) . Their reactivity constraints in a thermal spectrum are such that after a single three- to five-year cycle, the actinide compositions have no fissile value. At this point, only 3050 % of actinides will have been transmuted. This is the ultimate limit for transmutation in thermal spectrum. Of course, additional transmutation is possible if the reactivity deficit is made up by more enriched uranium or fresh actinides in the form of firstgeneration discharge from uranium fuel. However, this merely stretches out the time of the evolution to several cycles. The reactivity limit of the actinides will still be reached with only the same fraction burned. Table 11-3. Equilibrium Composition for Continuous Recycle Thermal Spectrum Fast Spectrum Np 5.5 0.8 Pu 51.1 97.0 Am 8.7 1.5 Cm 34.6 0.8 >Bk 0.2
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PLENTIFUL ENERGY The Story of the I
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Copyright © 2011 Charles E. Till a
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CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
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CHAPTER 10 APPLICATION OF PYROPROCE
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FOREWORD On a breezy December day i
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CHAPTER 1 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATO
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even now is straining the limits of
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with events and time. Till saw the
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it, I saw how a national laboratory
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Figure 1-2. West stands of the Stag
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development of nuclear power for ci
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depended on U.S. ability to maintai
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construction funding kept increasin
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faced a nightmarish combination of
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concept in the next decade.) In sti
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was based on EBR-I experience, but
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Figure 1-9. Experimental Breeder Re
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Figure 1-11. Rendering of the EBR-I
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performance. But the decision had b
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its shakedown in early years it jus
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sense primarily a commercial power
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without electrical generation, the
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Its purpose was to demonstrate the
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of each period, which the managemen
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CHAPTER 2 THE INTEGRAL FAST REACTOR
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A line had been pursued that the re
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The IFR refining process also produ
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director of Argonne a year or two b
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eporting on nuclear power developme
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A few weeks later, the mid-term ele
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2.6 Summary In late 1983, the line
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Argonne would be. My Ph.D. at Imper
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I had worked at the United Kingdom
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hadn‘t bothered us with it. But t
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But I had gone over and over the on
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laboratories.‖ Incidentally, late
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Argonne by this time was one of sev
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3.1.2 Life at the Laboratory in the
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An anecdote: In the cooperative arr
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Cycle Facility‖ went. We pushed i
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(LMFBR), which assumed a very rapid
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the pool was a settled issue; it wa
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During the early stage of the IFR p
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scientific work, not on non-essenti
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e generally held, even as facts inc
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cf per day from Canada via pipeline
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serious, and it is made more seriou
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global economy. The LWR, and the Ad
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supply 11%, and one, the world‘s
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Fatih Birol, has recently been quot
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gas production of little use in the
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expenditures during a decade starti
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thousand tonnes in one large increm
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But the principal line of developme
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Tar sands and oil shale recovery ar
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14. W. H. Ziegler, C. J. Campbell,
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Argonne had been a part of the deve
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Breaches or holes in the fuel cladd
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waste. For efficiency in uranium us
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Further, as a metal, sodium does no
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to the boundaries and many leak fro
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is debatable, it remains our belief
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CHAPTER 6 IFR FUEL CHARACTERISTICS,
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To do this, an extraordinarily simp
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Further cementing the decision was
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the AEC, but the reactor operation
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hands-on access needed to accomplis
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temperature. However, a very substa
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It turned out that the high-plutoni
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In the column ―Pu content % heavy
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40 start-ups and shutdowns 5 15% ov
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During casting, a partial vacuum (1
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is in fact a new fuel. Plutonium-ba
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8. G. L. Hofman and L. C. Walters,
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characteristics necessary for this.
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exchangers, and the steam generator
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experiments, as mentioned; this has
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sufficient to allow radioactive rel
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In the IFR, this loss of the coolin
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Figure7- 2. Reactor outlet temperat
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for thermal expansion of heavy stru
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power to shut down power is basical
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criticality. The debris is in the f
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7.10.2 The EBR-I Partial Meltdown T
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7.11 Licensing Implications What ar
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The sodium flowing into the steam g
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[15] Provisions are also made to co
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disassembly comes, it is with a rea
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CHAPTER 8 THE PYROPROCESS In the ne
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EBR-II purposes, and it established
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valuable fuel constituents, uranium
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and materials and it had been renam
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The first operation is done in the
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into the receiver crucible. The hea
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In the final step, the pins are arr
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Spent Fuel Processed, kg effective
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products, highly radioactive and se
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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 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, $/lb U3O8 the f
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$/kg 1200 1000 $1000/kg Rep Cost Pu
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Table 13-7. Summary Comparison of F
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fabrication. This, along with a low
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Fissile Cost, $/gm-fissile Fuel Cyc
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13.6 System Aspects The previous se
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waste streams have no long-term dec
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5. S. C. Chetal, ―India‘s Fast
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capacity over this century, in a sy
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thermal properties of NaK—the boi
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It is suspected that the lead corro
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Neutron Yield, Eta Value A = number
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to maintain a hard spectrum, the fu
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Table 14-3. Effects of fuel pin dia
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Fuel Volume Fraction have a large e
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neutron leakages from the core are
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like breeding, does increase such d
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substantial advantage to start with
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Doubling Time, yrs the reactivity c
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14.7 Worldwide Fast Reactor Experie
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limit to its life. The ingenuity of
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Nuclear Capacity, GWe the replaceme
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14.9 How to Deploy Pyroprocessing P
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construction projects. They may see
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inferior to sodium in their thermal
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5. Federation of American Scientist
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Supporting the reactor design and c
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In beginning this
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APPENDIX A DETAILED EXPLANATION OF
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The actinide metals (uranium, pluto
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As noted above, the interactions ri
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3. Equilibrium coefficients give th
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ion is created at the anode. Bulk t
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proceed spontaneously. If the magni
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product chlorides are highly stable
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increases with increasing temperatu
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Equilibrium in a chemical system is
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Exp(-ΔG o /RT) = [ U / Pu ] [ U /
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―in solution.‖ More Pu added to
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appropriate values are used for the
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A.9.5 The Second Cathode Regime: On
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in the real world. Uranium dendrite
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This is the significant number. The
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For those who are curious, the elec
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of concentration of uranium chlorid
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agreement with the measured ratio w
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eference 7. The important calculati
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as well. The numbers were obtained
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Run3: Plutonium isn’t, Uranium is
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The final actinide chloride ratios
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values of several of the constants
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HCDA HFEF HM HWR HTR IAEA ICRP IEA
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Dr. CHARLES E. TI
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