Study on Minor Actinide Incineration in Molten Salt Reactors with Uranium or Plutonium Loadings

• Published in: Physics of atomic nuclei Vol. 86; no. 8; pp. 1887 - 1893
• Main Authors: Kotov, Ya. A., Nevinitsa, V. A., Feynberg, O. S., Ignatyev, S. V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-12-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Fissionable materials; Mathematical analysis; Molten salt nuclear reactors; Nuclear fuels; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plutonium; Uranium; Waste management; dual cascade; separation cascade; closed nuclear fuel cycle; regenerated uranium; minor actinides; isotope separation; molten salts of metal fluorides; molten salt reactor; uranium enrichment; used nuclear fuel
• ISSN: 1063-7788; 1562-692X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063778823080227

The paper is concerned with the use of uranium wastes after purification of regenerated fuel from
232
U in a molten salt reactor (MSR) in application to minor actinide (MA) burning. The comparison of the uranium and plutonium loadings in an MSR was performed. The results of calculations show that the uranium loading in an MSR is a possible option that has a number of potential advantages: it allows for a higher rate of MA burning during the initial period of MSR operation with approximately the same burnup efficiency and increases the effective fraction of delayed neutrons. The presented calculations are of an approximate nature and first of all show the possibility of effective use of uranium from the waste stream of the enrichment cascade as a fissile material.