Investigation of fuel cycles containing Generation IV reactors and VVER-1200 reactors

Abstract

Abstract Gen-IV fast reactors are envisaged to operate in closed fuel cycles due to their ability to breed their fuel from fertile feed and burn minor actinides produced by themselves or thermal reactors in the nuclear park. The optimization of such fuel cycle strategies requires detailed models, capable of simulating the transition from initial state to equilibrium. A fast and flexible burn-up scheme based on polynomial fitting of the one-group cross-sections, FITXS was used to develop burn-up models for the Gen-IV Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR), Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) and Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR), as well as a European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) and a VVER-1200 MOX fuel assembly. The burn-up models were integrated in a closed fuel cycle model containing Gen-IV LFR and MOX fueled VVER-1200 reactors, and different scenarios were investigated and compared concerning the reduction of transuranium inventories and the stabilization of the plutonium inventory. Results show that the LFR is capable of burning minor actinides from spent VVER-440 fuel and that transuranium inventories can be stabilized or reduced with a mixed fleet of LFR and MOX fueled VVER-1200 reactors.