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Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
Gilles Youinou, Alfredo Vasile
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 151 | Number 1 | September 2005 | Pages 25-45
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE05-A2526
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
If it becomes necessary to stabilize the Pu inventory before the advent of Gen IV fast reactors, then it must be multirecycled in thermal neutron reactors like pressurized water reactors (PWRs). However, because of the neutron physics characteristics of Pu, it is difficult to multirecycle it in mixed-oxide (MOX)-fueled PWRs. Indeed, since there are fewer and fewer fissile isotopes in Pu, it is necessary to compensate by increasing its content, causing it to quickly reach values where the void coefficient is positive (above 12% Pu). To avoid this, Pu must be used together with enriched U so that its degradation is compensated by an increase of 235U enrichment. Two possibilities of mixing Pu and enriched U in the same assembly are presented (homogeneously and heterogeneously). In the first, called MOX-UE, all the fuel rods are made of PuO2-UenrichedO2, whereas the second, called CORAIL, contains approximately one-third of standard MOX rods (PuO2-UtailO2) and two-thirds of UO2 rods. A variant of the CORAIL concept in which the MOX rods are substituted with inert matrix fuel rods (PuO2-CeO2) was also studied. These assemblies allow Pu to be multirecycled in standard PWRs, thus stabilizing the Pu inventory between 200 and 400 t heavy metal (for a nuclear electricity production of 400 TWh(electric)/yr, i.e., typical of a country such as France). The number of reactors loaded with Pu depends on the performances of each concept in terms of Pu burning, and it represents between 80% (CORAIL with the MOX rods) and 30% (MOX-UE with 12% Pu) of the total power. There is only a small difference regarding the needs in natural U between the Pu monorecycling option and the different Pu multirecycling options. Hence, it appears that saving U should not be offered as an incentive for multirecycling Pu in PWRs.