SOME VISION OF INITIAL STAGE OF FUEL CYCLEWITH USE OF THORIUM AND URANIUM-233 IN RUSSIA

摘要

The natural resources of cheap uranium in Russia may be exhausted by Russian NP based on thermal reactors by the middle of the 21-st century. By then the reactor fleet of Russia will consist of VVER type reactors (mainly VVER-1000) to large extent, which consume low enriched uranium. At that the significant part of VVER reactors will not exceed their design life. The smooth change-over of operating VVERs to denaturized~(233)U based fuel cycle is one way out for the prolongation of operational life of this good mastered technology. Denaturized uranium, that is, the mixture of~(233)U and depleted or regenerated uranium, has more high resistance against the proliferation of nuclear materials.~(233)U can be produced in thermal reactors using mixed uranium and thorium oxides fuel.~(233)U can also be produced in thorium blankets of fast reactors of BN type (fast neutron reactors with sodium coolant) with MOX fuel used in a core. Comparison of thermal and fast reactors features on effectiveness to use plutonium based fuel for~(233)U accumulation showed that the efficiency of thermal neutron spectrum breeder of VVER type is significantly worse than fast neutron spectrum of BN type reactor. Besides, fast reactor allows producing uranium with significantly less content of~(233)U.