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FUEL-CYCLE SCENARIO TO REDUCE RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM LIGHT-WATER REACTOR

2021; EDP Sciences; Volume: 247; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/epjconf/202124713006

2101-6275

Satoshi Wada, Kouji Hiraiwa, Kenichi Yoshioka, Tsukasa Sugita, Rei Kimura,

Nuclear Materials and Properties

It is important to reduce the amount of trans-uranium (TRU) produced from the existing nuclear power plants to realize sustainable nuclear energy since the some TRU nuclides remain for a long time and have high radioactivity and radiotoxicity. One of the promising solutions is to transmute the TRU nuclides to those with lesser radioactivity and radiotoxicity in the existing nuclear reactors. In the current scheme, the TRU nuclides are transmuted in fast reactors and/or accelerator-driven-systems, however, this scenario seems unpromising in Japan: after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, it is required to reduce the production of TRU nuclides from the light-water reactors. In the previous studies, a concept of FORSETI was investigated, and a nuclear-fuel cycle simulation code ATRUNCYS was developed to study the low TRU production scenario. The FORSETI concept consists of two types of fuels: 1) UO 2 fuels with high-assay low-enriched-uranium, and 2) MOX fuels with highly fissile concentrated plutonium reprocessed from the FORSETI-UO 2 fuels. The current paper focuses on the following two scenarios: a) once-recycled scenario with the current fuel design, and b) once-recycled scenario with the FORSETI concept. The two scenarios were compared by using the ATRUNCYS code where the simulation studies showed that the amount, radioactivity, and radiotoxicity of resulting waste can be decreased in the FORSETI concept: In the case 1), the production of TRU nuclides decreased in the UO 2 fuel; In the case 2), the fission rate increased and neutron-capture reactions of 240 Pu and 241 Pu decreased in the MOX fuels.