Compound Process Fuel Cycle Concept and Core Characteristics

Abstract

A new fuel cycle concept is proposed in which spent fuels of light water reactor are multi-recycled in a fast reactor core without ordinary reprocessing process but with only simple dry pyrochemical processing. Feasibility of the concept has been studied focusing on the core nuclear characteristics adopting radial heterogeneous core configuration in which both recycled light water spent fuels and fast reactor fuels are loaded. Results of the core survey analyses show that four to six time recycling of light water reactor spent fuels with the burn-up of 300 to 400 GWd/t can be achieved with almost no increase of minor actinide content. Such benefits will be expected in this concept, though further research and development efforts are required, as efficient utilization of nuclear fuel resources, enhancement of nuclear non-proliferation due to the fact that all actinides are recycled all together in a lumped state together with the fact that the concept has no radial blanket fuels which contain high fissile plutonium ratio, besides the possibilities of reduction of environmental impacts due to reduced high level waste, reduction of fuel cycle cost through simplified reprocessing procedure, and suppression of light water reactor spent fuel pile-up.