A novel concept of QUADRISO particles – Part III: Applications to the plutonium–thorium fuel cycle

Abstract

In the present study, a plutonium–thorium fuel cycle is investigated including the 233U production and utilization. A prismatic thermal High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) and the novel concept of quadruple isotropic (QUADRISO) coated particles, designed at the Argonne National Laboratory, have been used for the study. In absorbing QUADRISO particles, a burnable poison layer surrounds the central fuel kernel to flatten the reactivity curve as a function of time. At the beginning of life, the fuel in the QUADRISO particles is hidden from neutrons, since they get absorbed in the burnable poison before they reach the fuel kernel. Only when the burnable poison depletes, neutrons start streaming into the fuel kernel inducing fission reactions and compensating the fuel depletion of ordinary TRISO particles. In fertile QUADRISO particles, the absorber layer is replaced by natural thorium with the purpose of flattening the excess of reactivity by the thorium resonances and producing 233U. The above configuration has been compared with a configuration where fissile (neptunium–plutonium oxide from Light Water Reactors irradiated fuel) and fertile (natural thorium oxide) fuels are homogeneously mixed in the kernel of ordinary TRISO particles. For the 233U utilization, the core has been equipped with europium oxide absorbing QUADRISO particles.