Multiple recycle of REMIX fuel at VVER-1000 operation in closed fuel cycle
- PDF / 210,521 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 50 Downloads / 185 Views
iple Recycle of REMIX Fuel at VVER1000 Operation in Closed Fuel Cycle P. N. Alekseev, E. A. Bobrov, A. V. Chibinyaev, P. S. Teplov, and A. A. Dudnikov National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, 123182 Russia email: [email protected] Received February 5, 2014
Abstract—The basic features of loading the VVER1000 core with a new variant of REMIX fuel (REgener ated MIXture of U–Pu oxides) are considered during its multiple recycle in a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The fuel composition is produced on the basis of the uranium–plutonium regenerate extracted at processing the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from a VVER1000, depleted uranium, and the fissionable material: 235U as a part of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from warheads superfluous for defense purposes or 233U accumulated in thorium blankets of fusion (electronuclear) neutron sources or fast reactors. Production of such a fuel assumes no use of natural uranium in addition. When converting a part of the VVER1000 reactors to the closed fuel cycle based on the REMIX technology, the consumption of natural uranium decreases consider ably, and there is no substantial degradation of the isotopic composition of plutonium or change in the reac torsafety characteristics at the passage from recycle to recycle. Keywords: REMIX fuel, VVER1000, HEU, degradation of fuel isotopic composition, SNF. DOI: 10.1134/S1063778815110034
INTRODUCTION The search for and analysis of optimum variants of a closed fuel cycle with thermal and fast reactors is one of the paramount problems of the nuclear power industry of Russia. It is caused by the necessity of increasing the efficiency of the naturaluranium use (decreasing the naturaluranium consumption) and decreasing the volumes of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored in storage facilities. The strategy of development of the power industry in Russia for the period until 2030 foresees the further increase in the share of nuclear generation. In this case, the basis of development of the nuclear power industry is the VVER technology. If VVER reactors are designed and assumed to operate as long as 60 years and more, there comes the moment when their fuel component of the electricpower cost price sharply increases because of exhaustion of stocks of cheap nat ural uranium. Therefore, the designers of reactors need to be prepared for a rise in price of fuel and to find the solutions for reducing the effect of such an increase in price. Correspondingly, an investor which orders and operates such a power plant should be informed how much should be paid for fuel and the handling of SNF during the entire period of operation of the power plant. For this reason, we formulated here the follow ing problem: how to improve the fuel cycle of light water reactors for operation in a closed fuel cycle. In [1–4], it was proposed to use the fuel based on the uranium–plutonium regenerate (an unseparated
mixture of uranium and plutonium isotopes) extracted from the spent fuel of these reactors, purified from minor actinides and fission produc
Data Loading...
