The Pu Re-using in the Fast Reactor under Slovak Conditions
19th Symposium of AER on VVER Reactor Physics and Reactor Safety (2009, Varna, Bulgaria)
Actinide Transmutation and Spent Fuel Disposal
Abstract
A very topical problem of nuclear power is the fuel cycle back-end. One of the options is a LWR spent fuel reprocessing and a fissile nuclides re-use in the fast reactor. A?large amount of spent fuel has been stored in the power plant intermediate storage during the operation of VVER-440 reactors in Slovakia. This paper is based on an?analysis of Pu and minor actinides content in actual VVER-440 spent fuel stored in Slovakia. The next part presents the possibilities of reprocessing and Pu re-use in fast reactor under Slovak conditions. The fuel cycle consisting of the VVER-440 reactor, PUREX reprocessing plant and a sodium fast reactor was designed. The last section compares two parts of this fuel cycle: one is UOX cycle in VVER-440 reactor and the other is cycle in the fast reactor – SUPER PHENIX loaded with MOX fuel (Pu + Minor Actinides). The starting point is a single recycling of Pu from VVER-440 in the FR. The next step is multirecycling of Pu in the FR to obtain equilibrium cycle. This article is dealing with the solution of power production and fuel cycle indicators. All kinds of calculations were performed by computer code HELIOS 1.10.