Use of Plutonium in Reactor Fuel

Abstract

Investigations performed to substantiate the strategy of safe development of nuclear power in Russia, taking account of the available resources, the state of the economy, and the transition of the country to a market economy, have shown that plutonium used as reactor fuel makes it possible to obtain a comprehensive solution to fundamental problems, many of which cannot be satisfactorily resolved with a uranium-based open fuel cycle. Thus, it has been established with respect to nuclear safet y that on the basis of physical and technical principles liquid-metal-cooled fast reactors have a greater potential for inherent safety; from the standpoint of nuclear disarmament it is of fundamental importance to decrease the amount of accumulated weapons and power plutonium and correspondingly to decrease the risk of proliferation of this nuclear material at the storage stage; fr om the standpoint of solving ecological problems the concept of radiation-safe storage of nuclear wastes, which can be implemented only by extracting plutonium from the spent fuel, is attractive; and so on. Thus, analysis of the assumptions and directions of development of nuclear power under altered conditions confirms the position that the use of plutonium in reactor fuel is one of the most fundamental aspects of the internal logic of the deve lopment of nuclear power. In the opinion of the authors rejection of plutonium will lead, directly or indirectly, if not to the cu rtailment of nuclear power, then to substantial limitation of its role in large-scale power production in the future. Utilization of Plutonium in VVER-1000. Preliminary investigations and the experience gained in the European countries in working with mixed uranium‐plutonium fuel in light-water reactors attest to the real possibility of using plutonium as VVER-1000 fuel. Computational investigations of the possibility of using power plutonium in VVER-1000 type reactors have been per