Proliferation Resistance of Americium Originating from Spent Irradiated Reactor Fuel of Pressurized Water Reactors, Fast Reactors, and Accelerator-Driven Systems with Different Fuel Cycle Options

2008 ◽  
Vol 159 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Reactor Fuel ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactors ◽  
Fast Reactors ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Driven Systems ◽  
Water Reactors ◽  
Accelerator Driven Systems

A Comparative Study on Severe Accident Phenomena Related to Melt Progression in Sodium Fast Reactors and Pressurized Water Reactors

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bachrata ◽  
Fréderic Bertrand ◽  
Nathalie Marie ◽  
Fréderic Serre
Keyword(s):  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactors ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Fast Reactors ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
The Core ◽  
Sodium Fast Reactors ◽  
Water Reactors ◽  
Accident Scenarios

Abstract The nuclear safety approach has to cover accident sequences involving core degradation in order to develop reliable mitigation strategies for both existing and future reactors. In particular, the long-term stabilization of the degraded core materials and their coolability has to be ensured after a severe accident. This paper focuses on severe accident phenomena in pressurized water reactors (PWR) compared to those potentially occurring in future GenIV-type sodium fast reactors (SFR). First, the two considered reactor concepts are introduced by focusing on safety aspects. The severe accident scenarios leading to core melting are presented and the initiating events are highlighted. This paper focuses on in-vessel severe accident phenomena, including the chronology of core damage, major changes in the core configuration and molten core progression. Regarding the mitigation means, the in-vessel retention phenomena and the core catcher characteristics are reviewed for these different nuclear generation concepts (II, III, and IV). A comparison between the PWR and SFR severe accident evolution is provided as well as the relation between governing physical parameters and the adopted mitigation provisions for each reactor concept. Finally, it is highlighted how the robustness of the safety demonstration is established by means of a combined probabilistic and deterministic approach.

scholarly journals Robustness Study of Electro-Nuclear Scenario under Disruption

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jiali Liang ◽  
Marc Ernoult ◽  
Xavier Doligez ◽  
Sylvain David ◽  
Léa Tillard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactors ◽  
Nuclear Wastes ◽  
Fast Reactors ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Static Strategy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Water Reactors ◽  
Development Objective

As the future of nuclear power is uncertain, only choosing one development objective for the coming decades can be risky; while trying to achieve several possible objectives at the same time may lead to a deadlock due to contradiction among them. In this work, we study a simple scenario to illustrate the newly developed method of robustness study, which considers possible change of objectives. Starting from the current French fleet, two objectives are considered regarding the possible political choices for the future of nuclear power: A. Complete substitution of Pressurized Water Reactors by Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors in 2180; B. Minimization of all potential nuclear wastes without SFR deployment in 2180. To study the robustness of strategies, the disruption of objective is considered: the objective to be pursued is possibly changed abruptly from A into B at unknown time. To minimize the consequence of such uncertainty, the first option is to identify a robust static strategy, which shows the best performance for both objectives A and B in the predisruption situation. The second option is to adapt a trajectory which pursues initially objective A, for objective B in case of the disruption. To identify and to analyze the adaptively robust strategies, outcomes of possible adaptations upon a given trajectory are compared with the robust static optimum. The temporality of adaptive robustness is analyzed by investigating different adaptation times.

Extended Burnup Fuel Cycle Optimization for Pressurized Water Reactors

1982 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred L. B. Ho ◽  
Alexander Sesonske
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactors ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Water Reactors

scholarly journals Non-Proliferative, Thorium-Based, Core and Fuel Cycle for Pressurized Water Reactors

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilad Raitses ◽  
Michael Todosow ◽  
Alex Galperin
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Nuclear Fuel Cycle ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactors ◽  
Pressurized Water Reactor ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Pressurized Water ◽  
Water Reactors ◽  
Proliferation Potential

Two of the major barriers to the expansion of worldwide adoption of nuclear power are related to proliferation potential of the nuclear fuel cycle and issues associated with the final disposal of spent fuel. The Radkowsky Thorium Fuel (RTF) concept proposed by Professor A. Radkowsky offers a partial solution to these problems. The main idea of the concept is the utilization of the seed-blanket unit (SBU) fuel assembly geometry which is a direct replacement for a “conventional” assembly in either a Russian pressurized water reactor (VVER-1000) or a Western pressurized water reactor (PWR). The seed-blanket fuel assembly consists of a fissile (U) zone, known as seed, and a fertile (Th) zone known as blanket. The separation of fissile and fertile allows separate fuel management schemes for the thorium part of the fuel (a subcritical “blanket”) and the “driving” part of the core (a supercritical “seed”). The design objective for the blanket is an efficient generation and in-situ fissioning of the U233 isotope, while the design objective for the seed is to supply neutrons to the blanket in a most economic way, i.e. with minimal investment of natural uranium. The introduction of thorium as a fertile component in the nuclear fuel cycle significantly reduces the quantity of plutonium production and modifies its isotopic composition, reducing the overall proliferation potential of the fuel cycle. Thorium based spent fuel also contains fewer higher actinides, hence reducing the long-term radioactivity of the spent fuel. The analyses show that the RTF core can satisfy the requirements of fuel cycle length, and the safety margins of conventional pressurized water reactors. The coefficients of reactivity are comparable to currently operating VVER’s/PWR’s. The major feature of the RTF cycle is related to the total amount of spent fuel discharged for each cycle from the reactor core. The fuel management scheme adopted for RTF core designs allows a significant decrease in the amount of discharged spent fuel, for a given energy production, compared with standard VVER/PWR. The total Pu production rate of RTF cycles is only 30% of standard reactor. In addition, the isotopic compositions of the RTF’s and standard reactor grade Pu are markedly different due to the very high burnup accumulated by the RTF spent fuel.

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