Accelerator-driven Systems ; Their Application to the Incineration of Long-lived Radioactive Waste

概要

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Actinides, mainly responsible for the long term risk of spent fuel, are the principal candidates to transmutation due to their large absorption cross sections. Systems driven by particle accelerators have been investigated in the past to produce fissile material. Recently these systems have been reconsidered to destroy minor actinides (MA) and long-lived fission products (LLFP), reducing the need for the traditional final confinement of radioactive waste. Two Monte Carlo calculation models have been developped to determine the criticality safety conditions and the burning capability of MAs and of Pu. A Pu burner, whose core is poisoned with Th to compensate by producing 233U the burnup reactivity due to the even Pu isotopes, can operate at a low proton current using perhaps a cyclotron, incinerating 70% of the charged Pu; its burning capability would be the production of about 1.5 PWRs. Liquid fuel accelerator driven systems can be used in the future (due to the accelerator dimensions) for MA burning using D2O as carrier in a homogeneous core; such a system can burn the production of more than 15 PWRs. In the future, also the problem of LLFP burning could be solved definitively using a system with D2O as carrier.
社団法人日本原子力学会の論文
1997-02-25