Evaluation of material attractiveness to non-state actors of various nuclear materials in Thorium fuel cycles

Thorium-based fuel cycles for advanced nuclear reactors have been explored to utilize thorium resources in nations where uranium is scarce, increase fissile material utilization, and enhance proliferation resistance. As a stepping stone, thorium-based fuels have been paired with pressure tube heavy water reactors because of their high neutron economy and online refueling capability. However, thorium fuel cycles have raised proliferation concerns regarding the presence of U-233 following the irradiation of fuel bundles. The presence of Pa-233, which decays into pure U-233, and the creation of Pu-239 due to the neutron capture of U-238 in mixed lightly-enriched uranium (LEU)/Thorium fuels, are also causes for proliferation concern.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Lisowski, Eva.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Benoit Forget.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127306

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127306