A neutronic study on advanced sodium cooled fast reactor cores with thorium blankets for effective burning of transuranic nuclides

Abstract

In this paper, new design concepts of sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) cores having thorium blanket are suggested for pursuing effective burning of TRU (transuranics) nuclides from LWR spent fuels and their neutronic performances are analyzed. Several core configurations having different arrangements of thorium blankets are explored to improve the core performances and safety-related parameters including sodium void worth which is one of main concerns on safety of SFR cores. Specifically, axial and radial thorium blankets are considered for two type cores. The first one is the typical annular type cores having two different fuel regions where axial thorium blankets are placed in the axially central regions while the second one is the single fuel region cores having central non-fuel region where the axial blanket and radial blankets are considered. Also, the effects of the recycling options and fuel management schemes of the used thorium blanket on the core performances are analyzed. The core performance analyses show that thorium blankets with no recycling option and multi-batch fuel management schemes are very effective to improve the core performances including burnup reactivity swing, sodium void worth and TRU consumption rate.