The MUST ADS Concept

Authors: J-B. Clavel, N. Thiollière, B. Mouginot

Abstract:

The presented work is motivated by a French law regarding nuclear waste management. A new conceptual Accelerator Driven System (ADS) designed for the Minor Actinides (MA) transmutation has been assessed by numerical simulation. The MUltiple Spallation Target (MUST) ADS combines high thermal power (up to 1.4 GWth) and high specific power. A 30 mA and 1 GeV proton beam is divided into three secondary beams transmitted on three liquid lead-bismuth spallation targets. Neutron and thermalhydraulic simulations have been performed with the code MURE, based on the Monte-Carlo transport code MCNPX. A methodology has been developed to define characteristic of the MUST ADS concept according to a specific transmutation scenario. The reference scenario is based on a MA flux (neptunium, americium and curium) providing from European Fast Reactor (EPR) and a plutonium multireprocessing strategy is accounted for. The MUST ADS reference concept is a sodium cooled fast reactor. The MA fuel at equilibrium is mixed with MgO inert matrix to limit the core reactivity and improve the fuel thermal conductivity. The fuel is irradiated over five years. Five years of cooling and two years for the fuel fabrication are taken into account. The MUST ADS reference concept burns about 50% of the initial MA inventory during a complete cycle. In term of mass, up to 570 kg/year are transmuted in one concept. The methodology to design the MUST ADS and to calculate fuel composition at equilibrium is precisely described in the paper. A detailed fuel evolution analysis is performed and the reference scenario is compared to a scenario where only americium transmutation is performed.

Keywords: Accelerator Driven System, double strata scenario, minor actinides, MUST, transmutation.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1083835

References:

[1] A. Barbensi et al. EFIT: The European Facility For Industrial Transmutation of minor actinide. In: Proc. 8th Int. Topical Mtg. on Nuclear Applications and Utilization of Accelerators, ACCAPP-07. Pocatello, Idaho, USA, 2007, pp. 885-892.
[2] C. Artioli, et al. Optimization of the minor actinides transmutation in ADS: the European Facility for Industrial Transmutation-EFIT-Pb Concept. In: Proc. Int. Conf. ACCAPP-07, Pocatello, USA, July 30- August 2.
[3] V. Romanello, et al. Comparative study of fast critical burner reactors and subcritical accelerator driven systems and the impact on transuranics inventory in a regional fuel cycle. Nuclear Engineering and Design 241 (2011) 433-443
[4] O. Méplan et al., 2009. MURE, MCNP Utility for Reactor Evolution: couples Monte Carlo transport with fuel burnup calculations. Computer Program Services of OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. .
[5] J.F. Briesmeister, 2000. MCNP - A General Monte Carlo N-Particle ransport Code - Version 4C. Manual LA-13709-M, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
[6] N. Capellan et al., 2009. 3D coupling of Monte Carlo neutronics and thermal-hydraulics calculations as a simulation tool for innovative reactor concepts. In: Proc. Int. Conf. GLOBAL 2009, Paper 9274.
[7] N. Capellan, 2009. Couplage 3D neutronique thermohydraulique. Développement d'outils pour les études de s├╗reté des réacteurs innovants. Thesis, France, November 2009.
[8] J. Guidez et al. Phenix: the irradiation program for transmutation experiment. In Eighth Information Exchange Meeting "Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning & Transmutation", USA,November 2004.
[9] G. Rimpault, L. Buiron, P. Sciora and F. Varaine. Towards GEN IV SFR design: Promising ideas for large advanced SFR Core Designs. In proceedings International Conference on the Physics of Reactors PHYSOR-2008, Interlaken, Switzerland, September 2008.
[10] L. Buiron, D. Blachet and N. Stauff. Sodium Fast Reactor Task Force. In meeting NEA WPRS EGRPANS on May 2011.
[11] M.B. Chadwick et al. ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data. Nuclear Data Sheets, vol 112, 2011.
[12] S. David. Private communication. Institut de Physique nucléaire d'Orsay, 2012