Improved proliferation resistance of fast reactor blankets manufactured from spent nuclear fuel

• In this paper we investigate how a blanket manufactured from recycled light water reactor (LWR)waste, instead of depleted uranium (DU), could potentially improve the non- proliferationcharacteristics. The blanket made from LWR waste would from the start of operation contain a fractionof plutonium isotopes unsuitable for weapons production. As 239Pu is bred in the blanket it istherefore always mixed with the plutonium already present.We use a Monte Carlo model of the advanced burner test reactor (ABTR) as reference design, andthe proliferation resistance of the blanket material is evaluated for two criteria, spontaneous neutronemission and decay heat. We show that it is possible to achieve a production of plutonium withproliferation resistance comparable to light water reactor waste with a burnup of 50MWd/kg.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Subatomär fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Subatomic Physics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Fertile blankets

proliferation resistance

fast reactor

Applied Nuclear Physics

Tillämpad kärnfysik

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