Self-Sustaining Thorium Boiling Water Reactors

Greenspan, Ehud¹  Gorman, Phillip M.¹  Bogetic, Sandra¹  Seifried, Jeffrey E.¹  Zhang, Guanheng¹  Varela, Christopher R.¹  Fratoni, Massimiliano¹  Vijic, Jasmina J.¹  Downar, Thomas²  Hall, Andrew²  Ward, Andrew²  Jarrett, Michael²  Wysocki, Aaron²  Xu, Yunlin²  Kazimi, Mujid³  Shirvan, Koroush³  Mieloszyk, Alexander³  Todosow, Michael⁴  Brown, Nicolas⁴  Cheng, Lap⁴ 

[1]Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

[2]Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

[3]Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

[4]Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

关键词: REACTOR SAFETY;    VOID COEFFICIENT;    THORIUM;    SODIUM COOLED REACTORS;    DESIGN;    REACTOR CORES;    TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS;    NUCLEAR FUELS;    COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS;    FUEL CYCLE;    COMMERCIALIZATION;    PERFORMANCE;    TRANSMUTATION;    BWR TYPE REACTORS;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1183773
RP-ID  :  DOE/NEUP--11-3023
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1183773
Others  :  Other: 11-3023
Others  :  TRN: US1500407

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来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The primary objectives of this project are to: Perform a pre-conceptual design of a core for an alternative to the Hitachi proposed fuel-self- sustaining RBWR-AC, to be referred to as a RBWR-Th. The use of thorium fuel is expected to assure negative void coefficient of reactivity (versus positive of the RBWR-AC) and improve reactor safety; Perform a pre-conceptual design of an alternative core to the Hitachi proposed LWR TRU transmuting RBWR-TB2, to be referred to as the RBWR-TR. In addition to improved safety, use of thorium for the fertile fuel is expected to improve the TRU transmutation effectiveness; Compare the RBWR-Th and RBWR-TR performance against that of the Hitachi RBWR core designs and sodium cooled fast reactor counterparts - the ARR and ABR; and, Perform a viability assessment of the thorium-based RBWR design concepts to be identified along with their associated fuel cycle, a technology gap analysis, and a technology development roadmap. A description of the work performed and of the results obtained is provided in this Overview Report and, in more detail, in the Attachments. The major findings of the study are summarized.