Minor Actinides Transmutation and 233 U Breeding in a Closed Th-U Cycle Based on Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactor

Liaoyuan He, Liang Chen, Shaopeng Xia and Yang Zou ()
Additional contact information
Liaoyuan He: Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Liang Chen: Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Shaopeng Xia: Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Yang Zou: Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Long-lived minor actinides (MAs) are one of the primary contributors to the long-term radiological hazards of nuclear waste, and the buildup of MAs is hampering the development of nuclear power. The transmutation of MAs in reactors is regarded as a potential way to replace direct disposal to reduce the impact of MA on the environment and improve the utilization of fuel. Due to its superior features, such as outstanding neutron economy, no fuel assembly fabrication, high neutron flux, and especially online refueling and reprocessing, the molten chloride salt fast reactor (MCFR) is regarded as one of the potential reactors for MA incineration. In this work, MA transmutation capability and 233 U breeding performance for an optimized MCFR have been evaluated in different scenarios. The results show that the MA transmutation capability and 233 U breeding performance with online transuranic elements (TRU) and 232 Th feeding scenario are improved significantly compared with the case in online 233 U and 232 Th feeding, when the initial MA loading is 5 mol%, the total mass of MA transmutation and MA incineration is 7160 kg and 1759 kg during the whole 100 years operation under online TRU and 232 Th feeding scenario, and the corresponding average annual net production of 233 U is 450 kg, however, the MA transmutation amount, MA incineration amount and average annual net production of 233 U for online 233 U and 232 Th feeding scenario is 5298 kg, 1315 kg, and 249 kg, respectively. In addition, the research also shows that the increase in initial loading of MA has no obvious effect on the improvement of the 233 U breeding performance but can improve the transmutation efficiency of MA under online TRU and 232 Th feeding scenarios. Furthermore, if 233 U is continuously extracted online from the core during the operation, the 233 U breeding performance will be significantly improved, but it will deteriorate the safety performance, such as the fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity (TCR) and the effective delayed neutron fraction (EDNF), more importantly, it will also put forward higher requirements for the immature online reprocessing technology.

Keywords: molten chloride salt fast reactor; closed Th-U cycle; MA transmutation; 233 U breeding; online reprocessing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9472/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9472/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:24:p:9472-:d:1002965

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().