Optimization of actinide transmutation in innovative lead-cooled fast reactors

The thesis investigates the potential of fertile free fast lead-cooled modular reactors as efficient incinerators of plutonium and minor actinides (MAs) for application to dedicated fuel cycles for transmutation. A methodology is developed that assesses the actinide incineration performance of several transmutation fuel cycles, both single and multi-tiered, on the basis of performance indicators related to the reduction of actinide mass at the repository and economics. Application of the methodology indicates that fast fertile-free critical reactors that bum plutonium and MAs applied to both one-tier and two-tier fuel cycles with fuel reprocessing have the potential to be more economical than other dedicated systems like the ATW. Hence the thesis studies two lead-cooled critical reactors that employ fertile-free fuel as possible candidates. The two designs proposed are: an actinide burner reactor (ABR), designed to incinerate mostly plutonium and some MAs from the spent fuel of the conventional LWR fleet, and a minor a ctinide buumer reactor (MABR), devoted to bum mostly minor actinides and some plutonium both recycled from the burner and produced by the LWR fleet that should be integrated in a two-tier fuel cycle where most of the plutonium is fed back to advanced thermal reactors or conventional fast reactors (first tier) for incineration. These designs incorporate several advanced technical solutions such as fuel assemblies with streaming elements, double-entry control rods and special absorbing materials that establish favorable neutronics characteristics and excellent self-controllability features, comparable to those of the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) core.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Romano, Antonino, 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neil E. Todreas.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17643

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17643