Design of an accelerator-driven subcritical dual fluid reactor for transmutation of actinides

Abstract

An accelerator-driven subcritical dual fluid reactor (AD-DFR), which is a hybrid core operated by a high power accelerator, is designed for the transmutation of minor actinides. The subcritical core is dual in the sense that a lead-bismuth-eutectic-cooled fast reactor (LFR) is combined with a molten salt reactor (MSR). Thus, the core has two loops: one for the liquid metal coolant and the other for the molten salt fuel. The combination of LFR and MSR can take advantages of both reactor types. A subcritical core allows for loading a high fraction of minor actinides in fuels. An 800MW_t AD-DFR can transmute minor actinides approximately 120kg/year with only the maximum beam power of 13MW.