Research Article Study of an ADS Loaded with Thorium and Reprocessed Fuel

Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 934105, 12 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/934105

Research Article
Study of an ADS Loaded with Thorium and Reprocessed Fuel
Graiciany de Paula Barros,1,2 Claubia Pereira,1,2 Maria A. F. Veloso,1,2 and Antonella L. Costa1,2

1Departamento de Engenharia Nuclear (DEN), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Avenida Antonio Carlos 6627 Campus Pampulha, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
2Instituto Nacional de Ciências e Tecnologia de Reatores Nucleares Inovadores/CNPq Rede Nacional de Fusão/FINEP, Brazil

Received 15 November 2011; Revised 13 February 2012; Accepted 14 February 2012

Academic Editor: Alberto Talamo

Copyright © 2012 Graiciany de Paula Barros et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract

Accelerator-driven systems (ADSs) are investigated for long-lived fission product transmutation and fuel regeneration. The aim of this paper is to investigate the nuclear fuel evolution and the neutronic parameters of a lead-cooled accelerator-driven system used for fuel breeding. The fuel used in some fuel rods was for production. In the other fuel rods was used a mixture based upon Pu-MA, removed from PWR-spent fuel, reprocessed by GANEX, and finally spiked with thorium or depleted uranium. The use of reprocessed fuel ensured the use of without the initial requirement of enrichment. In this paper was used the Monte Carlo code MCNPX 2.6.0 that presents the depletion/burnup capability, combining an ADS source and kcode-mode (for criticality calculations). The multiplication factor () evolution, the neutron energy spectra in the core at BOL, and the nuclear fuel evolution during the burnup were evaluated. The results indicated that the combined use of and reprocessed fuel allowed production without the initial requirement of enrichment. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/stni/2012/934105/