Design Studies for the Optimization of 238Pu Production in NpO2 Targets Irradiated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor

Charles R. Daily; Joel L. McDuffee

doi:10.1080/00295450.2019.1674594

Design Studies for the Optimization of ²³⁸Pu Production in NpO₂ Targets Irradiated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor

Charles R. Daily, Joel L. McDuffee

Nuclear Safety & Experiment Analysis Sec

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efforts to reestablish a domestic ²³⁸Pu production capability in support of National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission objectives are ongoing throughout the U.S. Department of Energy complex. The Plutonium-238 Supply Project (PSP) was initiated in response to a report published by the National Research Council in 2011 stating that “without a restart of ²³⁸Pu production, it will be impossible for the United States, or any other country, to conduct certain important types of planetary missions after this decade.” The PSP is targeting a sustained, constant production rate of 1.5 kg/year of heat source PuO₂ for several years. Design and optimization studies of ²³⁷Np-bearing targets are underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). It is anticipated that targets will be irradiated in ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory. A variety of target materials, containments, arrangements, and irradiation histories have been analyzed, and the results indicate that a sufficient quantity of ²³⁸Pu can be produced in HFIR and ATR to fulfill the PSP’s constant production rate target. This paper focuses on the design and optimization of new target configurations containing pellets that are (1) ~93% of the theoretical density of NpO₂, (2) loaded into pins of cladding materials that can be handled as solid waste following postirradiation ²³⁸Pu recovery operations, (3) irradiated in various vertical experiment facility (VXF) locations in the HFIR permanent beryllium reflector, and (4) rotated within and/or moved to another VXF location following each HFIR operational cycle to maximize ²³⁸Pu production and minimize peak heat generation rates.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1182-1194
Number of pages	13
Journal	Nuclear Technology
Volume	206
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1674594
State	Published - Aug 2 2020

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the support for this work provided by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the DOE Office of Nuclear Infrastructure Programs. The authors would also like to acknowledge Eva Davidson and Katherine Royston for their reviews of this paper. Some of the images in this paper were created with the open source VisIt 14 software package. VisIt is supported by the DOE with funding from the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program. This paper has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the DOE. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the paper for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). The authors would like to acknowledge the support for this work provided by NASA?s Science Mission Directorate and the DOE Office of Nuclear Infrastructure Programs. The authors would also like to acknowledge Eva Davidson and Katherine Royston for their reviews of this paper. Some of the images in this paper were created with the open source VisIt 14 software package. VisIt is supported by the DOE with funding from the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program. This paper has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the DOE. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the paper for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Funders	Funder number
DOE Office of Nuclear Infrastructure Programs
DOE Public Access Plan
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
Scientific Discovery
U.S. Government
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Science Mission Directorate

Keywords

High Flux Isotope Reactor
NpO
Pu
isotope production
modeling and simulation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/00295450.2019.1674594

Cite this

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title = "Design Studies for the Optimization of 238Pu Production in NpO2 Targets Irradiated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor",

abstract = "Efforts to reestablish a domestic 238Pu production capability in support of National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission objectives are ongoing throughout the U.S. Department of Energy complex. The Plutonium-238 Supply Project (PSP) was initiated in response to a report published by the National Research Council in 2011 stating that “without a restart of 238Pu production, it will be impossible for the United States, or any other country, to conduct certain important types of planetary missions after this decade.” The PSP is targeting a sustained, constant production rate of 1.5 kg/year of heat source PuO2 for several years. Design and optimization studies of 237Np-bearing targets are underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). It is anticipated that targets will be irradiated in ORNL{\textquoteright}s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory. A variety of target materials, containments, arrangements, and irradiation histories have been analyzed, and the results indicate that a sufficient quantity of 238Pu can be produced in HFIR and ATR to fulfill the PSP{\textquoteright}s constant production rate target. This paper focuses on the design and optimization of new target configurations containing pellets that are (1) ~93% of the theoretical density of NpO2, (2) loaded into pins of cladding materials that can be handled as solid waste following postirradiation 238Pu recovery operations, (3) irradiated in various vertical experiment facility (VXF) locations in the HFIR permanent beryllium reflector, and (4) rotated within and/or moved to another VXF location following each HFIR operational cycle to maximize 238Pu production and minimize peak heat generation rates.",

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N2 - Efforts to reestablish a domestic 238Pu production capability in support of National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission objectives are ongoing throughout the U.S. Department of Energy complex. The Plutonium-238 Supply Project (PSP) was initiated in response to a report published by the National Research Council in 2011 stating that “without a restart of 238Pu production, it will be impossible for the United States, or any other country, to conduct certain important types of planetary missions after this decade.” The PSP is targeting a sustained, constant production rate of 1.5 kg/year of heat source PuO2 for several years. Design and optimization studies of 237Np-bearing targets are underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). It is anticipated that targets will be irradiated in ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory. A variety of target materials, containments, arrangements, and irradiation histories have been analyzed, and the results indicate that a sufficient quantity of 238Pu can be produced in HFIR and ATR to fulfill the PSP’s constant production rate target. This paper focuses on the design and optimization of new target configurations containing pellets that are (1) ~93% of the theoretical density of NpO2, (2) loaded into pins of cladding materials that can be handled as solid waste following postirradiation 238Pu recovery operations, (3) irradiated in various vertical experiment facility (VXF) locations in the HFIR permanent beryllium reflector, and (4) rotated within and/or moved to another VXF location following each HFIR operational cycle to maximize 238Pu production and minimize peak heat generation rates.

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