Plutonium management with thorium-based fuels and inert matrix fuels in thermal reactor systems

The plutonium that is produced by light water reactors worldwide is currently re-used to a limited extent. In the last century, the expected introduction of fast reactors and the associated need for large amounts of plutonium did not take place. The result is that worldwide a stockpile of excess plu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProgress in nuclear energy (New series) Vol. 49; no. 8; pp. 617 - 622
Main Authors Schram, R.P.C., Klaassen, F.C.
Format Journal Article Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Tarrytown, NY Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2007
Oxford Elsevier
Subjects
Applied sciences
Energy
Exact sciences and technology
Fuels
Inert matrix fuel
Nuclear fuel
Nuclear fuels
Plutonium
Preparation and processing of nuclear fuels
Thorium
Transmutation
Nuclear fuel
Plutonium
Inert matrix fuel
Transmutation
Thorium
Fuel management
Thermal reactor
Nuclear reactor
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Summary:The plutonium that is produced by light water reactors worldwide is currently re-used to a limited extent. In the last century, the expected introduction of fast reactors and the associated need for large amounts of plutonium did not take place. The result is that worldwide a stockpile of excess plutonium has formed, which is the dominant contributor to the radiotoxicity of spent nuclear fuel for storage times from ∼10 2 to 10 5 years. One option to reduce or stabilize the plutonium stockpile is to utilize this plutonium in advanced fuel types, such as thorium-based and inert matrix fuels. Because these fuels do not contain uranium, the plutonium consumption rate is very high. In this paper, the status of the fuel research and some recent developments are given.
ISSN:0149-1970
DOI:10.1016/j.pnucene.2007.09.003