Americium Transmutation in the SVBR-100 Reactor

A V Gulevich,V A Eliseev,I V Tormyshev,O G Komlev,G I Toshinsky

doi:10.4236/wjnst.2020.103011

Abstract

One of the postponed problems of nuclear power (NP) is the problem of the management of long-lived radioactive waste (RAW), and, first of all, with minor actinides (MA), of which americium-241 is the most difficult. The aim of this work is to study the efficiency of americium transmutation in a fast reactor with a heavy liquid metal coolant lead-bismuth eutectic alloy. The article presents the results of calculations of the transmutation of americium in the SVBR-100 reactor using standard uranium oxide fuel with the addition of americium-241. The obtained values of the rate of transmutation of americium are compared with similar values for the SVBR-100 reactors on MOX-fuel and in the BN-800 reactor.

Highlights

One of the postponed problems of nuclear power (NP) is the problem of the treatment of long-lived radioactive waste (RAW), and, first of all, with minor actinides (MA)
When is used of a modular NPP based on SVBR-100 reactor facility (RF) with a capacity of 1 GWe for americium transmutation, all the americium accumulated will be used for loading into the cores of SVBR-100 reactors 182 years after the NPP was put into operation (2.18 tons will be used to form the first loads of modules, 2.18 tons—to form the second loads, and taking into account the formation of loadings for the 25 campaigns, the total mass of americium loaded into the cores of the reactors will reach 20.11 tons)—that is, the accumulated amount of americium will be utilized
It should be noted that in order to ensure the operation of transmutation reactors with their on-station closed nuclear fuel cycle (CNFC), more complex and “dirty” CNFC, it will be necessary to create a transport infrastructure for transporting separated MA from the CNFC facilities to the transmutation fast reactors sites, and vice versa transportation of plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of transmutation fast reactors to the CNFC enterprises of large-scale nuclear power. These issues require a separate study. It was shown in Ref. [3] that 82 kg of americium can be transmuted in the BN-800 reactor operating on MOX-fuel per year, including 71 kg in the core with its fuel content of about 2.5% and 11 kg in the side breeding zone

Summary

Introduction

One of the postponed problems of nuclear power (NP) is the problem of the treatment of long-lived radioactive waste (RAW), and, first of all, with minor actinides (MA). In this case, it is necessary to take into account the high specific heat release of curium

Objectives

Results

Conclusion