PROCESS FOR INCINERATION OF TRANSURANIAN CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND NUCLEAR REACTOR USING THE SAME

摘要

A process incinerate transuranic chemical elements and nuclear reactor implement this process. In order to incinerate transuranic chemical elements, such as long-lived nuclear waste and plutonium, a nuclear reactor is used in which the core operates at a low level of sub-criticality. This level is chosen substantially equal to the difference betaSUBs /SUBbetween a desired fraction betaSUBt /SUBof delayed neutrons in the core and the real fraction beta. An external source of spallation neutrons includes a proton accelerator in which one adjusts the power, in real time, on the neutron flux measured in the core. A supplementary fraction of delayed neutrons equal to the difference betaSUBs /SUBis thus injected into the reactor core. The reactor then behaves and controls itself like a classical critical reactor.