Natural Transmutation of Actinides via the Fission Reaction in the Closed Thorium-Uranium-Plutonium Fuel Cycle

摘要

It is shown for a closed thorium-uranium-plutonium fuel cycle that, upon processing of one metric ton of irradiated fuel after each four-year campaign, the radioactive wastes contain similar to 54 kg of fission products, similar to 0.8 kg of thorium, similar to 0.10 kg of uranium isotopes, similar to 0.005 kg of plutonium isotopes, similar to 0.002 kg of neptunium, and "trace" amounts of americium and curium isotopes. This qualitatively simplifies the handling of high-level wastes in nuclear power engineering.