Evaluating Material Attractiveness of Minor Actinide Nuclear Fuel Intended for a Waste Transmutation Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor

Figures & data

Fig. 1. Flowchart of the fuel cycle steps considered in this work. The red dotted line indicates the facility of interest in this work, and hence, also the origin of the material in the attractiveness evaluation.

Fig. 2. Sequence of computational simulations and outputs.

TABLE I Parameters and FOM Calculated Values Related to Material Attractiveness for Materials in Different Stages of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Material	Density (g/cm^3)	BCM (kg)	Decay Heat (W/kg)	Dose Rate (rad/h)^a	Spontaneous Fission Rate (n/s·kg)	FOM1	FOM2
Fast Reactor’s Fresh Fuel Material
^237Np	20.25	65.60	0.02	4.69 × 10^–4	0.00	2.08	2.08
Am^b	13.69	70.42	98.13	1.08 × 10°	1.09 × 10^3	0.79	0.78
Am + Np^c	15.29	67.07	62.62	7.30 × 10^–1	1.09 × 10^3	0.99	0.98
Fast Reactor’s Irradiated Fuel Material
U (>95 wt% ^234U)	18.95	104.50	4.80 × 10^–6	3.59 × 10^–4	2.25 × 10^–2	1.88	1.88
Np (>35 wt% ^237Np)	20.25	64.66	7.56 × 10^–2	4.69 × 10^–4	0.00	2.09	2.09
Am (>80 wt% ^241Am)	13.69	69.27	9.59 × 10^1	1.07 × 10°	3.7 × 10^3	0.80	0.79
Cm (79 wt% ^244Cm)	13.51	28.97	2.93 × 10^3	1.08 × 10^1	1.34 × 10^10	−0.28	−3.75
Pu + Np^d	16.84	44.87	1.22 × 10^2	4.58 × 10^–2	9.78 × 10^5	0.89	0.11
Pu (18.84 g/cm^3) CT (years)	Isotropic Composition	BCM (kg)	Decay Heat (W/kg)	Dose Rate (rad/h)^a	Spontaneous Fission Rate (n/s·kg)	FOM1	FOM2
0	81 wt% ^238Pu	11.00	465.22	1.18 × 10^1	2.26 × 10^6	0.94	0.32
2	81 wt% ^238Pu	11.03	460.24	1.33 × 10^1	2.25 × 10^6	0.94	0.32
5	80 wt% ^238Pu	11.17	454.44	1.56 × 10^1	2.24 × 10^6	0.94	0.31
10	78 wt% ^238Pu	11.34	445.44	1.89 × 10^1	2.22 × 10^6	0.94	0.31
30	75 wt% ^238Pu	11.75	429.48	2.46 × 10^1	2.18 × 10^6	0.94	0.30
60	68 wt% ^238Pu	12.74	378.80	3.62 × 10^1	2.08 × 10^6	0.95	0.29

^aThe radiation dose rate was calculated for 20% of the BCM at a 1-m distance and is expressed in rad/h.

^b85 wt% ²⁴¹Am + 15 wt% ²⁴³Am.

^c67 wt% Am + 33 wt% Np.

^d27 wt% Pu + 73 wt% Np.

Fig. 3. Actinide mass as a function of time. The fuel is under irradiation for the first 8000 days.

Fig. 4. Actinide mass as a function of time. The fuel is in storage for the next 60 years after discharge.