Studies on the Possibility to Replace the Burnable Poison with the Transmutation Fuel in the Deep Burn Fuel Management Strategy for the Gas Turbine - Modular Helium Reactor

摘要

The Gas Turbine - Modular Helium Reactor has the extraordinary capacity to operate with a fuel based on Light Water Reactors (LWRs) waste; in this case the GT-MHR is fueled with the transuranic actinides contained in LWRs spent fuel in order to incinerate them as completely as possible. The Deep Bum fuel management strategy allows the destruction of more than 94% of ~(239)Pu and 53% of all transneptunic actinides after a total irradiation time of 6 years. Two types of fuel are needed for an effective operation of the GT-MHR in this mode: the Driver Fuel (DF) and the Transmutation Fuel (TF). The DF is composed of neptunium and plutonium isotopes, previously generated in the LWRs, and it grants the criticality condition. After an irradiation of three years, the spent DF is reprocessed and its remaining actinides are manufactured into fresh TF, which contains also some set-aside americium and curium from LWRs waste. The Transmutation Fuel contains mainly non-fissile actinides that are transmuted, during a subsequent three-year irradiation, by neutron capture.