Scoping Studies for a Lead-Lithium-Cooled, Minor-Actinide-Burning, Fission-Fusion Hybrid Reactor Design

Abstract

A feasibility study of a subcritical fission-fusion hybrid reactor using lead-lithium eutectic as a coolant and minor actinides (MAs) as fuel is presented. Such a reactor could support the fission community by transmuting MAs and the fusion community by breeding tritium. The feasibility of such a reactor for the burnup of MAs is assessed in terms of burnup performance, tritium breeding, and safety characteristics. Tandem mirrors are a promising neutron source technology, and a deuterium-tritium tandem mirror is considered here for the neutron source with power _Psource = 1.13 MW assumed for scoping purposes. Subcritical reactivities from k_eff = 0.9800 to k_eff = 0.9950 were considered, representing the initial reference for subcritical reactivity and the assessed upper limit, respectively. Stability analyses indicated the reactivity would be stable under perturbations of fuel, coolant, and inlet temperatures, with a positive reactivity insertion expected during reactor shutdown. This $k_{eff}$ range corresponded to nuclear heating values of 150 to 650 MW and mass burn rates of 53 to 216 kg/year. The upper mass burn rate limit would require 1110 reactor years with a capacity factor of 0.9 to fission the global supply of MAs and could offset the annual U.S. MA production with eight reactors. Tritium breeding was assessed for k_eff = 0.9800 and 3.795% ⁶Li enrichment in the coolant, and a tritium breeding ratio of 1.602 $\pm$ 0.017 was tallied, suggesting the reactor could, without elevated ⁶Li enrichment, produce tritium to both sustain operation and supply tritium for other fusion devices. Time-series modeling of fuel burnup was conducted for a four-batch loading scheme and three different fuel residence times at k_eff = 0.9800, which showed system performance would drop with burnup, and that the rate of this drop was lower for longer fuel residence times, motivating a means of reactivity control. Last, changes in fuel composition with burnup were assessed for relative concentrations of MAs, transmutation products, and fission products. The breeding of plutonium in the blanket was calculated and found to be of minimal proliferation concern.

Keywords:

• Subcritical
• fission-fusion hybrid
• minor actinide
• lead lithium
• burnup

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the UW-Madison’s Graduate Engineering Research Scholars Fellowship and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fellowship for funding parts of this study. We would also like to thank Dr. Cary Forest and the Wisconsin High-temperature Superconductor Axisymmetric Mirror Project (U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy project DE-AR0001258) for their support.

Disclosure Statement

The authors have submitted a provisional patent application for an actinide burner design. Dr. Lindley has an ownership interest in Realta Fusion, which aims to commercialize the tandem mirror technology discussed in this paper.