Download or read book Thorium based Mixed Oxide Fuel in a Pressurized Water Reactor A Feasibility Analysis with MCNP written by Lucas Powelson Tucker and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation investigates techniques for spent fuel monitoring, and assesses the feasibility of using a thorium-based mixed oxide fuel in a conventional pressurized water reactor for plutonium disposition. Both non-paralyzing and paralyzing dead-time calculations were performed for the Portable Spectroscopic Fast Neutron Probe (N-Probe), which can be used for spent fuel interrogation. Also, a Canberra 3He neutron detector's dead-time was estimated using a combination of subcritical assembly measurements and MCNP simulations. Next, a multitude of fission products were identified as candidates for burnup and spent fuel analysis of irradiated mixed oxide fuel. The best isotopes for these applications were identified by investigating half-life, photon energy, fission yield, branching ratios, production modes, thermal neutron absorption cross section and fuel matrix diffusivity. 132I and 97Nb were identified as good candidates for MOX fuel on-line burnup analysis. In the second, and most important, part of this work, the feasibility of utilizing ThMOX fuel in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) was first examined under steady-state, beginning of life conditions. Using a three-dimensional MCNP model of a Westinghouse-type 17x17 PWR, several fuel compositions and configurations of a one-third ThMOX core were compared to a 100% UO2 core. A blanket-type arrangement of 5.5 wt% PuO2 was determined to be the best candidate for further analysis. Next, the safety of the ThMOX configuration was evaluated through three cycles of burnup at several using the following metrics: axial and radial nuclear hot channel factors, moderator and fuel temperature coefficients, delayed neutron fraction, and shutdown margin. Additionally, the performance of the ThMOX configuration was assessed by tracking cycle length, plutonium destroyed, and fission product poison concentration"--Abstract, page iv.

Download or read book The Influence of Thorium Uranium and Plutonium Fuel Mixture Composition on the Reactivity Coefficients of Pressurised Water Reactors written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reactivity coefficients -- Doppler coefficient (DC) -- Moderator temperature coefficient (MTC) -- Critical Boron Concentration (CBC) -- UO2 (Uranium dioxide) -- MOX (Mixed Oxide fuel) -- Thorium -- Fuel pin -- PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) -- MCNP (Monte Carlo N Particle Code)

Download or read book Neutronic Feasibility Assessment of Full core Applications of Evolutionary Mixed oxide Fuels in Pressurized Water Reactors written by Carrie June Heitman and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Thorium Energy for the Future written by A.K. Nayak and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-30 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book comprises selected proceedings of the ThEC15 conference. The book presents research findings on various facets of thorium energy, including exploration and mining, thermo-physical and chemical properties of fuels, reactor physics, challenges in fuel fabrication, thorium fuel cycles, thermal hydraulics and safety, material challenges, irradiation experiences, and issues and challenges for the design of advanced thorium fueled reactors. Thorium is more abundant than uranium and has the potential to provide energy to the world for centuries if used in a closed fuel cycle. As such, technologies for using thorium for power generation in nuclear reactors are being developed worldwide. Since there is a strong global thrust towards designing nuclear reactors with thorium-based fuel, this book will be of particular interest to nuclear scientists, reactor designers, regulators, academics and policymakers.

Download or read book Performance of Thorium Based Mixed Oxide Fuels for the Consumption of Plutonium and Minor Actinides in Current and Advanced Reactors written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renewed interest in thorium-based fuels has arisen lately based on the need for proliferation resistance, longer fuel cycles, higher burnup and improved wasteform characteristics. Recent studies have been directed toward homogeneously mixed, heterogeneously mixed, and seed-and-blanket thorium-uranium fuel cycles that rely on "in situ" use of the bred-in U-233. However, due to the higher initial enrichment required to achieve acceptable burnups, these fuels are encountering economic constraints. Thorium can nevertheless play a large role in the nuclear fuel cycle; particularly in the reduction of plutonium. While uranium-based mixedoxide (MOX) fuel will decrease the amount of plutonium, the reduction is limited due to the breeding of more plutonium (and higher actinides) from the U-238. Here we present calculational results and a comparison of the potential burnup of a thorium-based and uranium-based mixed oxide fuel in a light water reactor (LWR). Although the uranium-based fuels outperformed the thorium-based fuels in achievable burnup, a depletion comparison of the initially charged plutonium (both reactor and weapons grade) showed that the thorium-based fuels outperformed the uranium-based fuels by more that a factor of 2; where more than 70% of the total plutonium in the thorium-based fuel is consumed during the cycle. This is significant considering that the achievable burnup of the thorium-based fuels were 1.4 to 4.6 times less than the uranium-based fuels. Furthermore, use of a thorium-based fuel could also be used as a strategy for reducing the amount of long-lived nuclides (including the minor actinides), and thus the radiotoxicity in spent nuclear fuel. Although the breeding of U-233 is a concern, the presence of U-232 and its daughter products can aid in making this fuel self-protecting, and/or enough U-238 can be added to denature the fissile uranium. From these calculations, it appears that thorium-based fuel for plutonium incineration is superior as compared to uranium-based fuel, and should be considered as an alternative to traditional MOX in both current and future reactor designs.

Download or read book Feasibility Study on AFR 100 Fuel Conversion from Uranium based Fuel to Thorium based Fuel written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although thorium has long been considered as an alternative to uranium-based fuels, most of the reactors built to-date have been fueled with uranium-based fuel with the exception of a few reactors. The decision to use uranium-based fuels was initially made based on the technology maturity compared to thorium-based fuels. As a result of this experience, lot of knowledge and data have been accumulated for uranium-based fuels that made it the predominant nuclear fuel type for extant nuclear power. However, following the recent concerns about the extent and availability of uranium resources, thorium-based fuels have regained significant interest worldwide. Thorium is more abundant than uranium and can be readily exploited in many countries and thus is now seen as a possible alternative. As thorium-based fuel technologies mature, fuel conversion from uranium to thorium is expected to become a major interest in both thermal and fast reactors. In this study the feasibility of fuel conversion in a fast reactor is assessed and several possible approaches are proposed. The analyses are performed using the Advanced Fast Reactor (AFR-100) design, a fast reactor core concept recently developed by ANL. The AFR-100 is a small 100 MW{sub e} reactor developed under the US-DOE program relying on innovative fast reactor technologies and advanced structural and cladding materials. It was designed to be inherently safe and offers sufficient margins with respect to the fuel melting temperature and the fuel-cladding eutectic temperature when using U-10Zr binary metal fuel. Thorium-based metal fuel was preferred to other thorium fuel forms because of its higher heavy metal density and it does not need to be alloyed with zirconium to reduce its radiation swelling. The various approaches explored cover the use of pure thorium fuel as well as the use of thorium mixed with transuranics (TRU). Sensitivity studies were performed for the different scenarios envisioned in order to determine the best core performance characteristics for each of them. With the exception of the fuel type and enrichment, the reference AFR-100 core design characteristics were kept unchanged, including the general core layout and dimensions, assembly dimensions, materials and power rating. In addition, the mass of 235U required was kept within a reasonable range from that of the reference AFR-100 design. The core performance characteristics, kinetics parameters and reactivity feedback coefficients were calculated using the ANL suite of fast reactor analysis code systems. Orifice design calculations and the steady-state thermal-hydraulic analyses were performed using the SE2-ANL code. The thermal margins were evaluated by comparing the peak temperatures to the design limits for parameters such as the fuel melting temperature and the fuel-cladding eutectic temperature. The inherent safety features of AFR-100 cores proposed were assessed using the integral reactivity parameters of the quasi-static reactivity balance analysis. The design objectives and requirements, the computation methods used as well as a description of the core concept are provided in Section 2. The three major approaches considered are introduced in Section 3 and the neutronics performances of those approaches are discussed in the same section. The orifice zoning strategies used and the steady-state thermal-hydraulic performance are provided in Section 4. The kinetics and reactivity coefficients, including the inherent safety characteristics, are provided in Section 5, and the Conclusions in Section 6. Other scenarios studied and sensitivity studies are provided in the Appendix section.

Download or read book Non Proliferative Thorium Based Core and Fuel Cycle for Pressurized Water Reactors written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of the major barriers to the expansion of worldwide adoption of nuclear power are related to proliferation potential of the nuclear fuel cycle and issues associated with the final disposal of spent fuel. The Radkowsky Thorium Fuel (RTF) concept proposed by Professor A. Radkowsky offers a partial solution to these problems. The main idea of the concept is the utilization of the seed-blanket unit (SBU) fuel assembly geometry which is a direct replacement for a 'conventional' assembly in either a Russian pressurized water reactor (VVER-1000) or a Western pressurized water reactor (PWR). The seed-blanket fuel assembly consists of a fissile (U) zone, known as seed, and a fertile (Th) zone known as blanket. The separation of fissile and fertile allows separate fuel management schemes for the thorium part of the fuel (a subcritical 'blanket') and the 'driving' part of the core (a supercritical 'seed'). The design objective for the blanket is an efficient generation and in-situ fissioning of the U233 isotope, while the design objective for the seed is to supply neutrons to the blanket in a most economic way, i.e. with minimal investment of natural uranium. The introduction of thorium as a fertile component in the nuclear fuel cycle significantly reduces the quantity of plutonium production and modifies its isotopic composition, reducing the overall proliferation potential of the fuel cycle. Thorium based spent fuel also contains fewer higher actinides, hence reducing the long-term radioactivity of the spent fuel. The analyses show that the RTF core can satisfy the requirements of fuel cycle length, and the safety margins of conventional pressurized water reactors. The coefficients of reactivity are comparable to currently operating VVER's/PWR's. The major feature of the RTF cycle is related to the total amount of spent fuel discharged for each cycle from the reactor core. The fuel management scheme adopted for RTF core designs allows a significant decrease in the amount of discharged spent fuel, for a given energy production, compared with standard VVER/PWR. The total Pu production rate of RTF cycles is only 30 % of standard reactor. In addition, the isotopic compositions of the RTF's and standard reactor grade Pu are markedly different due to the very high burnup accumulated by the RTF spent fuel.

Download or read book Improving Fuel Cycle Design and Safety Characteristics of a Gas Cooled Fast Reactor written by Willem Frederik Geert van Rooijen and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Generation IV Forum is an international nuclear energy research initiative aimed at developing the fourth generation of nuclear reactors, envisaged to enter service halfway the 21st century. One of the Generation IV reactor systems is the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (GCFR), the subject of study in this thesis. The Generation IV reactor concepts should improve all aspects of nuclear power generation. Within Generation IV, the GCFR concept specifically targets sustainability of nuclear power generation. The Gas Cooled Fast Reactor core power density is high in comparison to other gas cooled reactor concepts. Like all nuclear reactors, the GCFR produces decay heat after shut down, which has to be transported out of the reactor under all circumstances. The layout of the primary system therefore focuses on using natural convection Decay Heat Removal (DHR) where possible, with a large coolant fraction in the core to reduce friction losses.

Download or read book Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-08-06 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the next decade, many thousands of U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons are slated to be retired as a result of nuclear arms reduction treaties and unilateral pledges. Hundreds of tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium will no longer be needed for weapons purposes and will pose urgent challenges to international security. This is the supporting volume to a study by the Committee on International Security and Arms Control which dealt with all phases of the management and disposition of these materials. This technical study concentrates on the option for the disposition of plutonium, looking in detail at the different types of reactors in which weapons plutonium could be burned and at the vitrification of plutonium, and comparing them using economic, security and environmental criteria.

Download or read book Advances in High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Fuel Technology written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication reports on the results of a coordinated research project on advances in high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel technology and describes the findings of research activities on coated particle developments. These comprise two specific benchmark exercises with the application of HTGR fuel performance and fission product release codes, which helped compare the quality and validity of the computer models against experimental data. The project participants also examined techniques for fuel characterization and advanced quality assessment/quality control. The key exercise included a round-robin experimental study on the measurements of fuel kernel and particle coating properties of recent Korean, South African and US coated particle productions applying the respective qualification measures of each participating Member State. The summary report documents the results and conclusions achieved by the project and underlines the added value to contemporary knowledge on HTGR fuel.

Download or read book History Development and Future of TRIGA Research Reactors written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Nuclear Energy Basic Principles written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the rationale and vision for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The publication identifies the basic principles that nuclear energy systems must satisfy to fulfil their promise of meeting growing global energy demands.

Download or read book Thorium Fuel Cycle written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a critical review of the thorium fuel cycle: potential benefits and challenges in the thorium fuel cycle, mainly based on the latest developments at the front end of the fuel cycle, applying thorium fuel cycle options, and at the back end of the thorium fuel cycle.

Download or read book Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy written by Thomas James Dolan and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2024-01-25 with total page 1068 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy, Second Edition is a fully updated comprehensive reference on the latest advances in MSR research and technology. Building on the successful first edition, Tom Dolan and the team of experts have fully updated the content to reflect the impressive advances from the last 5 years, ensuring this book continues to be the go-to reference on the topic. This new edition covers progress made in MSR design, details innovative experiments, and includes molten salt data, corrosion studies and deployment plans. The successful case studies section of the first edition have been removed, expanded, and fully updated, and are now published in a companion title called Global Case Studies on Molten Salt Reactors. Readers will gain a deep understanding of the advantages and challenges of MSR development and thorium fuel use, as well as step-by-step guidance on the latest in MSR reactor design. Each chapter provides a clear introduction, covers technical issues and includes examples and conclusions, while promoting the sustainability benefits throughout. - A fully updated comprehensive handbook on Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy, written by a team of global experts - Covers MSR applications, technical issues, reactor types and reactor designs - Includes 3 brand new chapters which reflect the latest advances in research and technology since the first edition published - Presents case studies on molten salt reactors which aid in the transition to net zero by providing abundant clean, safe energy to complement wind and solar powe

Download or read book Radiological Characterization of Shut Down Nuclear Reactors for Decommissioning Purposes written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report describes and assesses radiological characterization as a precursor to decommissioning. It shows the influence of the radioactive inventory on the planning and strategies of decommissioning and also presents an extensive overview of characterization results on various reactors which have been or are being decommissioned.

Download or read book Magnetic Fusion Technology written by Thomas J. Dolan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-02-10 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnetic Fusion Technology describes the technologies that are required for successful development of nuclear fusion power plants using strong magnetic fields. These technologies include: • magnet systems, • plasma heating systems, • control systems, • energy conversion systems, • advanced materials development, • vacuum systems, • cryogenic systems, • plasma diagnostics, • safety systems, and • power plant design studies. Magnetic Fusion Technology will be useful to students and to specialists working in energy research.

Download or read book Status and Prospects of Thermal Breeders and Their Effect on Fuel Utilization written by International Atomic Energy Agency and published by Bernan Press(PA). This book was released on 1979 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: