On the Burning of Plutonium Originating from Light Water Reactor Use in a Fast Molten Salt Reactor—A Neutron  Physical Study

Merk, Bruno; Litskevich, Dzianis

doi:10.3390/en81112328

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In contrast to this, the destruction rate in the solid fuelled system is limited within one stage and would request reprocessing and fuel reproduction before a reinsertion into the reactor. The Pu destruction rate coincides very well with the previous study [8]. …”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

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A disruptive approach to eliminating weapon-grade plutonium – Pu burning in a molten salt fast reactor

Merk

Litskevich

2018

PLoS ONE

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The successful implementation of disarmament treaties of the last centuries has led to significant amounts of weapon-grade Plutonium which are currently stored in high security storage facilities. Disposing this Plutonium should be seen as ‘good housekeeping’ avoiding unnecessary costs and the hazards of storing this material indefinitely. In addition, the disarmament is only brought to a successful end when the Plutonium isn’t available for the production of new weapons anymore. We propose a disruptive approach for Plutonium disposition and demonstrate the feasibility in a neutronic study. Burning of weapon-grade Plutonium in a molten salt fast reactor is significantly more efficient than in the studied other reactors, while efficient process design has the potential to reduce the security concerns significantly. The proposed system could turn about 1.25 tons of weapon-grade Plutonium into electric energy worth £ 0.5 to 1 billion/year, depending on the electricity price while avoiding the hassle and eliminating the risk of high security Plutonium storage. In conclusion, burning of the weapon-grade Plutonium resulting from disarmament could be an economically very attractive approach to reduce the nuclear threat.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Recently, molten salt reactors have been proposed for highly efficient transmutation and for the burning of civil plutonium [8, 9, 10, 11]. Could this systems be used for the disposition of weapon grade plutonium, too?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A disruptive approach to eliminating weapon-grade plutonium – Pu burning in a molten salt fast reactor

Merk

Litskevich

2018

PLoS ONE

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“…It is in addition the linking of all results and transferring as well as evaluating it on the level of the reactor and the long term operation. The applied procedure has already been used and improved over years leading to several publications [24][25][26]. However, the most reliable way to confirm a complicated process is a hand calculation based on known values:…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially, in the Mass Flow Data Comparison details of the study indicating that Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) have the potential for the highest (fissile material) utilization which result in the lowest material losses [23]. The potential advantageous safety behavior and the excellent operational flexibility have already been extensively discussed [24][25][26] for molten salt fast reactors. The challenges in the implementation of molten salt reactors have already been described in several projects [27,28].…”

Section: Strategic Development For the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power

et al. 2017

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Abstract:The current generation of nuclear reactors are evolutionary in design, mostly based on the technology originally designed to power submarines, and dominated by light water reactors. The aims of the Generation IV consortium are driven by sustainability, safety and reliability, economics, and proliferation resistance. The aims are extended here to encompass the ultimate and universal vision for strategic development of energy production, the "perpetuum mobile"-at least as close as possible. We propose to rethink nuclear reactor design with the mission to develop an innovative system which uses no fresh resources and produces no fresh waste during operation as well as generates power safe and reliably in economic way. The results of the innovative simulations presented here demonstrate that, from a theoretical perspective, it is feasible to fulfil the mission through the direct reuse of spent nuclear fuel from currently operating reactors as the fuel for a proposed new reactor. The produced waste is less burdensome than current spent nuclear fuel which is used as feed to the system. However, safety, reliability and operational economics will need to be demonstrated to create the basis for the long term success of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source.

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“…The potential advantageous safety behaviour and the excellent operational flexibility have already been extensively discussed [15,16,17] for molten salt fast reactors. The challenges in the implementation of molten salt reactors have already been described in several projects [18,19].…”

Section: Technological Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power

Merk¹,

Litskevich²,

Whittle³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract:The current generation of nuclear reactors are evolutionary in design, mostly based on the technology originally designed to power submarines, and dominated by Light Water Reactors. The aims of the GenIV consortium are driven by sustainability, safety and reliability, economics, and proliferation resistance. The aims are extended here to encompass the ultimate and universal vision for strategic development of energy production, the 'perpetuum mobile' -at least as close as possible. We propose to rethink nuclear reactor design with the mission to develop a system which uses no fresh resources and produces no fresh waste during operation as well as generates power safe and reliably in economic way. The results of the innovative simulations presented here demonstrate that, from a theoretical perspective, it is feasible to fulfil the mission through the reuse of spent nuclear fuel from currently operating reactors as the fuel for a new reactor. The produced waste is less burdensome than current spent nuclear fuel which is used as feed to the system. However, safety, reliability and operational economics will need to be demonstrated to create the basis for the long term success of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source.

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On the Burning of Plutonium Originating from Light Water Reactor Use in a Fast Molten Salt Reactor—A Neutron Physical Study

Cited by 16 publications

References 14 publications

A disruptive approach to eliminating weapon-grade plutonium – Pu burning in a molten salt fast reactor

A disruptive approach to eliminating weapon-grade plutonium – Pu burning in a molten salt fast reactor

On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power

On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power

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