A fast reactor core using TRU fuel without uranium burns TRU with high efficiency because it does not produce any new plutonium or minor actinides. The TRU burning fast reactor cycle using uranium-free metallic fuel is one of the most promising solutions for TRU burning considering the issues of proliferation and nuclear waste final disposal. However, a fast reactor core using uranium-free metallic fuel must address low Doppler reactivity feedback and large burnup reactivity swing inherent to this design. The uranium-free TRU recovery process from LWR used fuel also must be clarified. Those key issues have been investigated in this study. Regarding the reactor core characteristics, introducing diluent Zr alloy, spectrum moderator BeO and a lower core height enable the Doppler reactivity coefficient and burnup reactivity swing to be kept to a practicable level similar to conventional fast reactor cores containing uranium fuel. As for the TRU recovery process, two processes for recovery are presented; one is the Toshiba Advanced Aqua-Pyro Process in combination with an existing PUREX plant, the other is the Toshiba Hybrid Reprocessing Process that recovers plutonium and minor actinides together as a metallic form without uranium. Both processes have high proliferation resistance since plutonium is always accompanied by minor actinides with some fission products. As the results, the prospect of the proposed TRU burning fast reactor cycle using uranium-free metallic fuel has been confirmed.
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