Application of the Resource-Renewable Boiling Water Reactor for TRU Management and Long-Term Energy Supply

Abstract

The RBWR (resource-renewable boiling water reactor) is an innovative BWR that has a capability to breed and burn trans-uranium elements (TRUs) using a multi-recycling process. The RBWR can be used as a long-term energy supply, and it reduces the negative environmental impact that TRUs cause as they are otherwise long-lived radioactive wastes. Various design concepts of the RBWR core have been proposed. The RBWR-AC is a break-even reactor and the RBWR-TB and RBWR-TB2 are TRU burners. The RBWR-TB is designed to burn TRUs from the RBWR-TB itself and to burn almost all the TRUs by repeating their recycling. The RBWR-TB is assumed to be applied for a nuclear power phase-out scenario. The RBWR-TB2 is intended to burn TRUs from LWR spent fuels. The RBWR-TB2 is assumed to be applied for reducing the amount of TRUs to be managed in storage facilities. The RBWR cores achieve their TRU multi-recycling capability under the constraint that the void reactivity coefficient must be negative by introducing the parfait core concept. This chapter reviews details of the specific design and core characteristics of the RBWR.