Sustainable thorium nuclear fuel cycles: A comparison of intermediate and fast neutron spectrum systems

N. R. Brown; J. J. Powers; B. Feng; F. Heidet; N. E. Stauff; G. Zhang; M. Todosow; A. Worrall; J. C. Gehin; T. K. Kim; T. A. Taiwo

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.04.015

Sustainable thorium nuclear fuel cycles: A comparison of intermediate and fast neutron spectrum systems

N. R. Brown, J. J. Powers, B. Feng, F. Heidet, N. E. Stauff, G. Zhang, M. Todosow, A. Worrall, J. C. Gehin, T. K. Kim, T. A. Taiwo

Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division

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

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents analyses of possible reactor representations of a nuclear fuel cycle with continuous recycling of thorium and produced uranium (mostly U-233) with thorium-only feed. The analysis was performed in the context of a U.S. Department of Energy effort to develop a compendium of informative nuclear fuel cycle performance data. The objective of this paper is to determine whether intermediate spectrum systems, having a majority of fission events occurring with incident neutron energies between 1 eV and 10⁵ eV, perform as well as fast spectrum systems in this fuel cycle. The intermediate spectrum options analyzed include tight lattice heavy or light water-cooled reactors, continuously refueled molten salt reactors, and a sodium-cooled reactor with hydride fuel. All options were modeled in reactor physics codes to calculate their lattice physics, spectrum characteristics, and fuel compositions over time. Based on these results, detailed metrics were calculated to compare the fuel cycle performance. These metrics include waste management and resource utilization, and are binned to accommodate uncertainties. The performance of the intermediate systems for this self-sustaining thorium fuel cycle was similar to a representative fast spectrum system. However, the number of fission neutrons emitted per neutron absorbed limits performance in intermediate spectrum systems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	252-265
Number of pages	14
Journal	Nuclear Engineering and Design
Volume	289
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.04.015
State	Published - May 28 2015

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by employees of Brookhaven Science Associates LLC under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 and DE-AC02-98CH10886, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725, and UChicago Argonne, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 with the US Department of Energy. The publisher by accepting the manuscript for publication acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. This effort was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Fuel Cycle Options Campaign .

Funders	Funder number
DOE-NE
UChicago Argonne, LLC
UT-Battelle LLC	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Office of Nuclear Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

UN SDGs

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

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10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.04.015

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abstract = "This paper presents analyses of possible reactor representations of a nuclear fuel cycle with continuous recycling of thorium and produced uranium (mostly U-233) with thorium-only feed. The analysis was performed in the context of a U.S. Department of Energy effort to develop a compendium of informative nuclear fuel cycle performance data. The objective of this paper is to determine whether intermediate spectrum systems, having a majority of fission events occurring with incident neutron energies between 1 eV and 105 eV, perform as well as fast spectrum systems in this fuel cycle. The intermediate spectrum options analyzed include tight lattice heavy or light water-cooled reactors, continuously refueled molten salt reactors, and a sodium-cooled reactor with hydride fuel. All options were modeled in reactor physics codes to calculate their lattice physics, spectrum characteristics, and fuel compositions over time. Based on these results, detailed metrics were calculated to compare the fuel cycle performance. These metrics include waste management and resource utilization, and are binned to accommodate uncertainties. The performance of the intermediate systems for this self-sustaining thorium fuel cycle was similar to a representative fast spectrum system. However, the number of fission neutrons emitted per neutron absorbed limits performance in intermediate spectrum systems.",

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AU - Zhang, G.

AU - Todosow, M.

AU - Worrall, A.

AU - Gehin, J. C.

AU - Kim, T. K.

AU - Taiwo, T. A.

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Sustainable thorium nuclear fuel cycles: A comparison of intermediate and fast neutron spectrum systems

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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