{"title":"Preliminary study of transuranic transmutation in a small modular chloride salt fast reactor","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110879","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The management of radioactive waste poses a significant challenge to the sustainable development of nuclear energy. Efficient transmutation of nuclear wastes is crucial to minimize their accumulation. A small modular chloride salt fast reactor (sm-MCFR) capable of transmuting transuranic elements (TRU) is proposed in this paper, combining the advantages of the small modular reactor (SMR) and the molten salt reactor (MSR). The sm-MCFR is characterized by a high fuel loading and a compact core structure that can be quickly deployed around large commercial reactors to achieve TRU transmutation. To evaluate the TRU burnup capability of the sm-MCFR, several fuel salts and reprocessing modes were analyzed using the internally developed TRITON MODEC Coupled Burnup Code (TMCBurnup) tool. NaCl-MgCl<sub>3</sub> with 98 % enrichment in <sup>37</sup>Cl is chosen as carrier salt for the sm-MCFR, which can achieve 76.7 % TRU transmutation rate in average and 355 kg·GW<sup>−1</sup>·a<sup>−1</sup> TRU transmutation quality at a continuous reprocessing rate of 10 L/d for 50 operation years. The optimized sm-MCFR reduced the radioactive toxicity of TRU by 84 %, thereby simplifying waste reprocessing. In addition, the sm-MCFR has a negative temperature feedback coefficient of −7.195 pcm/K, favoring safe reactor operation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454924005425","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The management of radioactive waste poses a significant challenge to the sustainable development of nuclear energy. Efficient transmutation of nuclear wastes is crucial to minimize their accumulation. A small modular chloride salt fast reactor (sm-MCFR) capable of transmuting transuranic elements (TRU) is proposed in this paper, combining the advantages of the small modular reactor (SMR) and the molten salt reactor (MSR). The sm-MCFR is characterized by a high fuel loading and a compact core structure that can be quickly deployed around large commercial reactors to achieve TRU transmutation. To evaluate the TRU burnup capability of the sm-MCFR, several fuel salts and reprocessing modes were analyzed using the internally developed TRITON MODEC Coupled Burnup Code (TMCBurnup) tool. NaCl-MgCl3 with 98 % enrichment in 37Cl is chosen as carrier salt for the sm-MCFR, which can achieve 76.7 % TRU transmutation rate in average and 355 kg·GW−1·a−1 TRU transmutation quality at a continuous reprocessing rate of 10 L/d for 50 operation years. The optimized sm-MCFR reduced the radioactive toxicity of TRU by 84 %, thereby simplifying waste reprocessing. In addition, the sm-MCFR has a negative temperature feedback coefficient of −7.195 pcm/K, favoring safe reactor operation.
期刊介绍:
Annals of Nuclear Energy provides an international medium for the communication of original research, ideas and developments in all areas of the field of nuclear energy science and technology. Its scope embraces nuclear fuel reserves, fuel cycles and cost, materials, processing, system and component technology (fission only), design and optimization, direct conversion of nuclear energy sources, environmental control, reactor physics, heat transfer and fluid dynamics, structural analysis, fuel management, future developments, nuclear fuel and safety, nuclear aerosol, neutron physics, computer technology (both software and hardware), risk assessment, radioactive waste disposal and reactor thermal hydraulics. Papers submitted to Annals need to demonstrate a clear link to nuclear power generation/nuclear engineering. Papers which deal with pure nuclear physics, pure health physics, imaging, or attenuation and shielding properties of concretes and various geological materials are not within the scope of the journal. Also, papers that deal with policy or economics are not within the scope of the journal.