Design Feasible Area on Water Cooled Thorium Breeder Reactor In Equilibrium States

摘要

Thorium as supplied fuel has good candidate for fuel material if it is converted into fissile material ~(233)U which shows superior characteristics in the thermal region. The Shippingport reactor used ~(233)U-Th fuel system, and the molten salt breeder reactor (MSBR) project showed that breeding is possible in a thermal spectrum. In the present study, feasibility of water cooled thorium breeder reactor is investigated. The key properties such as flux, η value, criticality and breeding performances are evaluated for different moderator to fuel ratios (MFR) and burn-ups. The results show the feasibility of breeding for different MFR and burn-ups. The required ~(233)U enrichment is about 2% - 9% as charge fuel. The lower MFR and the higher enrichment of ~(233)U are preferable to improve the average burn-up; however the design feasible window is shrunk. This core shows the design feasible window especially in relation to MFR with negative void reactivity coefficient.