Concept of an Accelerator-Driven Advanced Nuclear Energy System

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 7; p. 944
• Main Authors: Yan, Xuesong, Yang, Lei, Zhang, Xunchao, Zhan, Wenlong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-07-2017
• Subjects: accelerator-driven advanced nuclear energy system (ADANES); Alternative energy; Arms control & disarmament; Carbon; ceramic reactor; Economic impact; Fission products; future energy; Nuclear electric power generation; Nuclear energy; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear fission; nuclear fission energy; nuclear fuel recycle; Nuclear fuels; Nuclear reactors; Nuclides; Partitioning; Radioactive wastes; Reprocessing; Resource utilization; simple high-temperature dry (HT-dry) reprocessing; Thorium; Transmutation; Uranium; United States > US
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en10070944

[...]if the ideal fission energy were achieved, the uranium resource utilization rate could be increased up to 100% (in the long term, the thorium resource utilization rate can be expected to reach unity as well), with a consequent elimination of the discharge of radioactive waste. [...]the fine partitioning indicates major economic costs and nuclear proliferation risks. [...]after the partitioning, although a part of the nuclides still has significant application values, the remaining part still needs to undergo transmutation processing and high-risk storage. The granular target, formed under the drive of gravity, may be a very promising target for powers ranging from 10 MW to 100 MW. Since the external neutron source consumes additional power, an ADANES power generation system can adopt the dual-accelerator redundancy mode as displayed in Figure 4. [...]this reprocessing would exclude part of the toxic fission products and minimize actinide losses for improving the fuel utilization rate.