There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Radioactive waste partitioning and transmutation within advanced fuel cycles: Achievements and Challenges

The development technology and applications of supercritical CO2 power cycle in nuclear energy, solar energy and other energy industries

Recent Developments in Synthesis and Structural Chemistry of Nonaqueous Actinide Complexes

Nuclear fuels - Present and future

This paper describes the results of a study that uses the thermal performance of the repository to establish chemical separations and transmutation criteria for commercial spent nuclear fuel of ben...

Separations and transmutation criteria to improve utilization of a geologic repository

The goals of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) are to expand the use of nuclear energy to meet increasing global energy demand, to address nuclear waste management concerns and to promote non-proliferation. Implementation of the GNEP requires development and demonstration of three major technologies: (1) Light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel separations technologies that will recover transuranics to be recycled for fuel but not separate plutonium from other transuranics, thereby providing proliferation-resistance; (2) Advanced Burner Reactors (ABRs) based on a fast spectrum that transmute the recycled transuranics to produce energy while also reducing the long term radiotoxicity and decay heat loading in the repository; and (3) Fast reactor fuel recycling technologies to recover and refabricate the transuranics for repeated recycling in the fast reactor system. The primary mission of the ABR Program is to demonstrate the transmutation of transuranics recovered from the LWR spent fuel, and hence the benefits of the fuel cycle closure to nuclear waste management. The transmutation, or burning of the transuranics is accomplished by fissioning and this is most effectively done in a fast spectrum. In the thermal spectrum of commercial LWRs, some transuranics capture neutrons and become even heavier transuranics rather than being fissioned. Even with repeated recycling, only about 30% can be transmuted, which is an intrinsic limitation of all thermal spectrum reactors. Only in a fast spectrum can all transuranics be effectively fissioned to eliminate their long-term radiotoxicity and decay heat. The Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) is the first step in demonstrating the transmutation technologies. It directly supports development of a prototype full-scale Advanced Burner Reactor, which would be followed by commercial deployment of ABRs. The primary objectives of the ABTR are: (1) To demonstrate reactor-based transmutation of transuranics as part of an advanced fuel cycle; (2) To qualify the transuranics-containing fuels and advanced structural materials needed for a full-scale ABR; and (3) To support the research, development and demonstration required for certification of an ABR standard design by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The ABTR should also address the following additional objectives: (1) To incorporate and demonstrate innovative design concepts and features that may lead to significant improvements in cost, safety, efficiency, reliability, or other favorable characteristics that could promote public acceptance and future private sector investment in ABRs; (2) To demonstrate improved technologies for safeguards and security; and (3) To support development of the U.S. infrastructure for design, fabrication and construction, testing and deployment of systems, structures and components for the ABRs. Based on these objectives, a pre-conceptual design of a 250 MWt ABTR has been developed; it is documented in this report. In addition to meeting the primary and additional objectives listed above, the lessons learned from fast reactor programs in the U.S. and worldwide and the operating experience of more than a dozen fast reactors around the world, in particular the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II have been incorporated into the design of the ABTR to the extent possible.

/pdf/advanced-burner-test-reactor-preconceptual-design-report-cgs9gl5eq3.pdf

Advanced burner test reactor preconceptual design report.

This paper describes the results to date from an ongoing study to establish the chemical separations and transmutation criteria for commercial spent nuclear fuel that would be of benefit to a geologic repository, as measured by the allowable reduction in repository size for a given capacity. The bases for determining the chemical elements to be separated are described, and include both thermal and dose rate criteria. The benefit to a repository is quantified as a function of the separation of certain chemical elements and the efficiency of the chemical separation, along with subsequent transmutation of some of the chemical elements. The proposed repository at Yucca Mountain is used as an example of a geologic repository for the purposes of illustrating the magnitude of the benefits that are possible and the implications for repository size and operation. This work is being done in support of the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, where numerous reactor, processing, and recycling strategies are being examined to determine the impact on issues important to the viability of nuclear electricity generation, including the impact on the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.

Spent nuclear fuel separations and transmutation criteria for benefit to a geologic repository

/pdf/the-sas4a-sassys-1-safety-analysis-code-system-version-5-55yri57oqw.pdf

T. H. Fanning

Papers

Separations and transmutation criteria to improve utilization of a geologic repository

Advanced burner test reactor preconceptual design report.

Spent nuclear fuel separations and transmutation criteria for benefit to a geologic repository

The SAS4A/SASSYS-1 Safety Analysis Code System, Version 5

Selection of sodium coolant for fast reactors in the US, France and Japan