Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Transmutation of minor actinides by means of subcritical reactors

E.Minguez, J.Garcia, J.M. Martinez-Val and J.M.Perlado

Abstract

The present work is devoted to demonstrate numerically the main advantages of a subcritical reactor, conceptually similar to the proposed Energy Amplifier (EA)‘, as transmutator of relevant actinides from the nuclear fuel waste. Two types of cycles are analyzed: Uranium-Thorium, and Uranium-Plutonium. Several schemes of reprocesing of the irradiated nuclear fuel are assumed to obtain the concentration of actinides to be used as additional fuel in the subcritical reactor, which use thorium as a main fuel in a fast neutron spectra. The numerical method used to analyze the time evolution of the actinides is the ORIGEN2 computer code, which for this work uses an external library of cross sections weighted with a fast spectra relevant of the EA. In the second section the analysis of a Thorium-Uranium cycle will be shown and in the third one, an Uranium-Plutonium cycle will be presented. Conclusions will demonstrate the availability of the EA to be used as transmutator of actinides.

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key words: Fast Neutron Spectrum Systems, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Technical Committee Meeting, Madrid, Spain 17-19 September 1997
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TC--903.3, pp:233-238