Multiple Recycling of Light Water Reactor Waste Plutonium in a Fast Spectrum Core

Abstract

A fuel management scheme is proposed for a twofold purpose: incineration of light water reactor waste plutonium and electricity generation. The scheme is based on a fast spectrum core with lead as a coolant. The core is managed in a three-batch mode, 200 days per cycle. Enriched 10B, in B4C pellets, is used as burnable poison, reducing the criticality drop to just 2.8%/cycle. The latter can be handled easily with a few control rods. The core is flat, with a 400-cm diameter and 90-cm height, to ensure that core voiding results in a criticality decrease. Recycled fuel is recharged into the core after the fission products, but not actinides, have been removed. Equilibrium operation is reached within a short period of 2 yr. In a span of 27 yr, the core will incinerate the plutonium at an average rate of 730 kg/yr, while generating 1000 MW(electric).