Two-Level Helium Cycle for Maximum Transmutation in Secure, Clean, and SafeManner

摘要

Helium-cooled reactor technologies offer significant advantages in accomplishingthe waste transmutation process. They are ideally suited for use with fast neutron spectra since the gas coolant is essentially transparent to neutrons and does not degrade the energy spectrum, thus providing the hardest possible fast neutron environment for transmutation of those actinides with low fission-to-capture ratios in the thermal neutron energy range. They can operate at the high temperatures that allow conversion of the fission energy to electricity at highest efficiency. They also provide a relatively hard thermal neutron spectrum. This permits the use of non-fertile burnable poison control in a thermal system, and hence essentially complete plutonium fission without further production.