Comparison of Behaviour of Thorium, Uranium, and MOX fuels in a Pressurized Water Reactor
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Science |
Authors
Date
2013
Department
Major/Subject
Ydin- ja energiatekniikka
Mcode
Tfy-56
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
73
Series
Abstract
The goal of this thesis was to study the sustainability, radiotoxicity and proliferation resistance of a nuclear fuel composed of 232Th-233U. The study is made by simulation of five different fuel assembly composition with the CASMO-4E program for in-core deterministic nuclear calculations. In order to increase the scope of the study, two different fuel cycles are studied. Since 233U is not presented in nature it must be bred from fertile nuclear fuels and therefore it presents different options for fuel cycle. You can choose between open and closed cycle, use plutonium or uranium, and pressurized or boiling water reactors or breeding reactors. As a first fuel cycle core, a reactor running with a Radkowsky fuel is assumed. Necessary amount of 233U is achieved, and due to the fact that only enriched uranium is used an open cycle model has been elected to calculate the overall impact as regards sustainability, radiotoxicity and proliferation resistance. For the second case, a reactor fueled with a mix of thorium and plutonium is used to achieve necessary breeding of 233U. Since plutonium is used, the most logical election was to pick up a closed fuel cycle where the plutonium is reprocessed and used to produce 233U. It is shown that the use of 232Th-233U as fuel could be useful due to its advantages in comparison with normal uranium fuel and the MOX fuel. The most promising fuel cycle is the open fuel cycle but the closed fuel cycle presents some advantages really attractive for nuclear fuel.Description
Supervisor
Salomaa, RainerThesis advisor
Aarnio, PerttiKeywords
thorium, uranium, MOX, fuel cycle, sustainability, radiotoxicity, proliferation resistance