A design study on a metal fuel fast reactor core for high efficiency minor actinide transmutation by loading silicon carbide composite material

ABSTRACT

A metal fuel fast reactor core for high efficiency minor actinide (MA) transmutation was designed by loading silicon carbide composite material (SiC/SiC) which can improve sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) core safety characteristics such as sodium void reactivity worth and Doppler coefficient due to neutron moderation. Based on a 750 MWe metal fueled SFR core concept designed in a prior work, the reactor core loading fuel subassemblies with SiC/SiC wrapper tubes and moderator subassemblies was designed. To improve the reactor core safety characteristics efficiently, three layers of SiC/SiC moderator subassemblies were loaded in the core by replacing 108 out of 393 fuel subassemblies with the moderators. The reactor core with approximately 20 wt% MA-containing metal fuel satisfied all safety design criteria and achieved the MA transmutation amount as high as 420 kg/GWe-y which is twice as high as that of the axially heterogeneous core with inner blanket and upper sodium plenum, and two-thirds of that of the accelerator-driven system.

KEYWORDS:

• Metal fuel
• transmutation
• sodium-cooled fast reactor
• neutronics design
• SiC

Acknowledgments

This paper includes a part of the results of “Development of highly flexible technology for recovery and transmutation of minor actinide” entrusted to Central Research Institute Electric Power Industry by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [JPMXD0216816036].