STIMULATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT REACTORS

OF SODIUM-COOLED

FAST

V. M. Murogov, V. I. Subbotin, V. S. Kagramanyan, V. M. Poplavskii, N. S. Rabotonov, and M. F. Troyanov

UDC 621.039.526.034.63

Considerable material and intellectual resources have been invested in programs for the development of sodium-cooled fast reactors over a period of more than 40 years. They have now been sufficiently prepared at the scientific and technical level for specific design work, construction, and operating to be continued, incorporating international experience [1]. The experience in our country is from four operating reactors: BR-10, BOR-60, BN-350, and BN-600. A major contribution is being made by the BN-600 [2, 3], which has good installed-capacity utilization factors (ICUF), as well has a high level of nuclear and radiation safety: low pressure and no leaks in the primary loop, stable negative reactivity feedbacks, effective heat transfer by the transfer, including natural circulation during cooling. Substantially below the allowable ecological effect of fast reactors. A high burn-up of oxide fuel has been attained in fast reactors: up to 12% in BN-600, up to 20% in Phenix (France), and PFR (Gt. Britain), and up to 18% in metal alloy test fuel elements in the USA. Considerable experience in producing uranium-plutonium oxide fuel and subsequent reprocessing of the spent fuel has been gained in France and Gt. Britain. The Phenix and PFR reactors have already been operated on multiply regenerated fuel. Uranium oxide fuel with accumulated plutonium from the BN-600 is reprocessed regularly. Small batches of mixed oxide fuel are prepared at the "Mayak" Industrial Amalgamation and the Scientific-Research Institute of Atomic Reactors. The problem of expanded breeding has ceased to be timely under the present conditions in the nuclear power industry. The BN-800 project, for example, is characterized by sufficient breeding for plutonium self-sufficiency (breeding ratio BR - 1). It must be noted that even with BR - 1 a fast reactor has a fundamental advantage over thermal reactors in regard to natural uranium consumption. The operation of such a reactor requires an initial charge and the running plutonium consumption is balanced by plutonium breeding and the involvement of a small amount [ - 1 ton U/GW(E)yr] of uranium. In view of the large accumulated reserves of both uranium and plutonium, it can be said that the operation of the BN-800,, in contrast to thermal reactors, does not require natural uranium or separation.

Economy and Safety of Fast Reactors. The specific capital outlays and electricity production costs of the first pilot reactors were 1.5-2.5 times those of present-day light-water reactors. Domestic [4] and foreign [5] analysis shows that these differences are caused only to a small degree (within 25%) by the specifics of sodium technology and much more so by other factors: - outlays for attaining a high degree of safety; - the technological mastery, i.e., is the reactor commercial or serial; - the region of construction and the mastery of the site; - the capacity and number of power units on the site; - the time required to prepare the project and built a power unit; and - the degree of development of the fuel cycle technology, the capacity and utilization factor of the fuel supply enterprises, etc.

The experience from operating the BN-600 was taken into account in the BN-800 design. The specific metal content of the latter is 79% [3] of that of the BN-600; the new BN-600M design, developed at the OKBM (Engineering Testing-Design Bureau), has a specific material content on a par with those of the new-generation intermediate-capacity VVI~R (water-moderated water-cooled power) reactor VPBt~R-600 [6].

Physics and Power Engineering Institute. Translated from Atomnaya t~nergiya, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 286-290, April, 1993.

268

1063-4258/93/7404-0268512.50

1993 Plenum Publishing Corporation

TABLE 1. Time Variation of the Relative Toxicity Indices with Allowance for the Contribution from Daughter Nuclides Formed During Storage*
Nuclide 1 238pt 239pu Half-lif0, yr 87;7 24000 6560 14,4 370.103 210.104 432 7370 18,1 I0 223
1 Storage time, yr 100 1000

10000 1,5 0,75 1,3 0,02 0,05 0,02 0,02 1,8 1,3

110
1

0,3 0,97 3,3 13 0,05 0,02 13 3,1 3,3

24Opu
241pu 242pu ~TNp 241Am 243Am 244Cr n

3,6 45 0.05 0,02 63 3,3 600

3,6 56
0,05

0,02 54 3,3 20

*The calculations were done by A. G. Tsikunov, A. L. Kochetkov, and V. S. Kagramyan.

The improvement in the fuel cycle economy of fast reactors is determined by the increase in fuel burn-up in the reactor core to 15-20% and the creation of large-scale automated production of uranium-plutonium fuel. The BN-600 is already competitive with conventional energy sources. The more stringent safety requirements bring the economic indicators of fast and thermal reactors closer together since in fast reactors these requirements are met by simpler means as a result of the low pressure in the sodium loops, easier control of the reactor given the compensation of burn-up, the stability of the energy-release fields, etc. The inherent properties of fast reactors as well as the introduction of additional technical features (passive means of acting on the reactivity, a system of emergency cooling through air heat exchangers, a sump for collecting molten fuel) have brought up the BN-800 project to a level that meets the requirements of new-generation nuclear power plants. In particular, the positive sodium reactivity void effect when sodium boils has been eliminated in this reactor. Enhancement of the safety of water-moderated water-cooled power reactors required new projects: the VVt~R-500 (the NP-500 project) and the VPBI~R-600 (the NP-600 project). The latest economic estimates have shown that the specific capital outlays on the construction of the main unit and three subsequent units (averaged over the four units) with NP-500 and BN-800 reactors are almost equal. These results confirm earlier predictions. The efficient use of plutonium in fast reactors will mean savings of enriched uranium in the nuclear power industry and an expansion of exports of enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear power plants. Burning of Aetinides. Transuranium elements (plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium) build up during operation of the reactors. Plutonium has always been considered as an artificial nuclear fuel. Moreover, these actinides, including plutonium isotopes, are long-lived, mainly a-emitting, and substantially complicate the ultimate burial of nuclear power wastes, Table 1 shows how the specific radiotoxicity of various actinides vary with time during prolonged storage. The standard chose was the biological radiotoxicity of the principal actinide, 239pu, defined as the volume of water necessary to dilute a unit mass of a sample to the maximum allowable concentration. Table 2 shows that in a thousand years of storage of spent nuclear fuel the main contribution to the total radiotoxicity of the actinides comes from 241pu and its decay product 241Am. In the short term 238pu and 244Cm are significant. When the actinides are removed from the wastes the total radiotoxicity of the remaining fission fragments becomes the same as that of uranium ore in several hundred years; otherwise, hundreds of thousands of years are required for this to happen. In the past several years experts have focused constant attention on the possibility of destroying actinides produced in reactors by putting them in high-intensity neutron fluxes. Two terms have been used ~0 denote this process: transmutation and burning. The first is more general; it is the term used for any transformation of a long-lived nuclide into another (preferably stable, rapidly decaying, or less radiotoxic).

269

TABLE 2. Contribution of Various Nuclides to the Radiotoxicity of the Annual Spent Uranium Fuel from a PWR-1000 Reactor (33 GW .day/3rr)
Nuclide production, kg/yr
11 3,4 126,1 58,1 31,7 11,8 231 2,2 0,6 245

Nuclide 237Np 2.38pu . ~gp u 240pu 241pu + 241A m 242pu Pu + 241Am 243Arli 244Cm

Radiooxicity as a function of the storage time, kg.equiv. 2 s ~ u

3 yr 0,2 862 126 215 1161 0,6 2365 7 464 2836
1000 yr

0,2 1,0 122 192 412 0,6 727 6,8 1,9 737

Total

Burning today is used to denote fission. The consistent differentiation between these two types of processes is a new phenomenon. This difference is the key to an understanding of the quantitative difference, transforming into a qualitative difference, between the results of actinide recycling in fast and thermal reactors. It is determined by higher ratios of the average fission and capture cross sections for threshold elements in fast reactors than in thermal reactors. From the standpoint of obtaining energy this is not crucial since there is one natural actinide nucleus (235U) and several artificial actinide nuclei, which are easily fissioned by thermal neutrons. It is crucial, however, for a device, one purpose of which is to transform all the actinides into fission fragments. Let us consider this on the computational example of a high-flux thermal-neutron electronuclear facility, the Los Alamos A T W project [7]. The main task of the ATW is to burn plutonium as well as neptunium and americium. Their total relative concentration in the fuel does indeed decrease by a factor of 1.5. At the same time, however, the curium concentration (mainly 244Cm and 248Cm) increases 1000 times, to 38%. This can scarcely regarded as a satisfactory result of transmutation since the intermediate-lived 244Cm is highly active and release much heat, while 248Cm is exceptionally radiotoxic since 8% of its decays are spontaneous fission and its half-life is 340,000 yr. Its thermal and capture cross sections, and especially its fission cross section, are low and it can be transmuted only with difficulty. The buildup of threshold nuclides, primarily even isotopes of curium, determines the principal disadvantage of thermal reactors as burners of actinides that build up during recycling; the radiotoxicity grows with time. In comparison with other methods, burning of neptunium, americium, and curium is most efficient in fast reactors where, in contrast to thermal reactors, the total mass and radiotoxicity of the transuranium elements in the system stabilize fairly rapidly during recycling [8]. Only fission products and transuranium elements lost during chemical processing of the spent nuclear fuel would enter the wastes in this case. The necessary reduction of the loss of transuranium elements can be achieved by introducing efficient chemical processing methods to extract 0.99 to 0.999 of the various types of nuclides. Studies show that fast reactors can burn neptunium, americium, and curium build in them and in thermal reactors. When 3.5% actinide oxides are added to the fuel of the BN-800, without appreciably affecting the reactor characteristics, the actinide oxides are burned at the rate of 100 kg/yr. This means that one BNL800 can in addition burn the neptunium, americium, and curium built up in three or four VVI~R-1000 [9]. They can also be burned at a faster rate in a custom-built fast reactor. Use of Built-Up Plutonium. Operation of reactors produces a considerable amount of nuclear-power-grade plutonium, a large part of which at present is concentrated in repositories of spent fuel from RBMK and VV]~R-1000 reactors. In our country plutonium is always considered an energy resource for nuclear power. This was the basis for the construction (a long time ago) of the RT-1 plant for chemical reprocessing of spent fuel, mainly from the VVt~R-440. Uranium fuel from the BN-600 is also reprocessed. Up to the present more than 25 tons of nuclear-power-grade plutonium has been extracted. Its prolonged storage entails deterioration of its quality becaus~ of the decay of 241pu into the ecologically more dangerous 241Anl. Conversion is expected to free tens of tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium. Like the nuclear-power grade, it can be used for energy production [10].

270

The fact that the program for using nuclear-power-grade and weapons-grade plutonium has not yet been substantiated scientifically and ecologically has aroused the anxiety of both experts and the public since it aggravates the problem of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and storage of wastes. Studies carried out at the Physics and Power Engineering Institute show that the problem of free plutonium can be solved by a program of construction of four BN-800 power units. Operating in an open version of the uranium-plutonium cycle, in 30 yr these reactors can use up the nuclear-power-grade plutonium built up and produced by the RT-1 plant as well as up to 100 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, if necessary. This makes it possible to reduce the buildup of 241Am appreciably and thus simplify the solution of the ecological problems. The use of weapons-grade plutonium by conversion to nuclear-power grade alleviates the problem of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. When considering alternative ways, one must bear in mind that the use of weapons-grade plutonium in light-water reactors entails a loss of 50-60% of the power potential of plutonium for the power industry in the future. And, very importantly, there will be an additional buildup of highly toxic tong-lived actinides, mainly 241pu and 24tAm, leading to a 200-250% increase in the overall radiotoxicity of nuclear materials. When both weapons-grade and nuclear-power-grade plutonium is used in BN-800 reactors with CR - 1, its energy potential is preserved and the total radiotoxicity of actinides virtually does not change. The use of plutonium in a fast reactor is compatible with actinide burning as well as the buildup of 233U in the end breeding zones. The introduction of the latter into thermal reactors opens up new possibilities for enhancing their safety and reducing the buildup of actinides in them. Conclusion. The high level of safety of fast reactors, the economic prospects, burning of actinides, and use of plutonium are the factors that should stimulate their design and construction. Reactor engineering has a feature that distinguishes it from other high-tech industries. This pertains to the distinctive ways in which reactor engineering has developed and grown in various countries. In regard to commercial mastery of the fast-reactor technology our country is ahead of many others and, naturally, should maintain that lead. LITERATURE CITED Proc. Intern. Conf. on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles. Kyoto, Japan, Oct. 28-Nov. 1 (1991). Yu. E. Bagdasarov, O. M. Saraev, and N. N. Oshkanov, The BN-600 Reactor. Power Unit No. 3 of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant, Preprint FI~I-2284 [in Russian], Physics and Power Engineering Institute, Obninsk (1992). L. A. Kochetkov, A. I. Kiruyushin, and N. N. Oshkanov, "Sodium-cooled fast reactors in Russia: Looking beyond the year 2000," At. t~nerg., 74, No. 4, 282 (1993). A. A. Rineiskii, "Comparison of the technical and economic characteristics of nuclear power plants with modern thermal and fast reactors," At. t~nerg., 53, No. 6, 360 (1982). G. Naudet, C. Satre, J. Martin, and L. Duchatelle, "The trend to the competitiveness of FBR in Europe," in: Proc. Intern. Conf. on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles. Kyoto, Japan, Oct. 28-Nov. 1, (1991), Vol. 2, p. 18.4-1. F. M. Mitenkov and A. I. Kirushin, "Advanced commercial reactor," in: Proc. Intern. Conf. on Design and Safety of Advanced Nuclear Power Plants, Tokyo, Japan Oct. 25-29 (1992), p. 15.6. C. Bowman, E. Artur, P. Lisowski, et al., Nuclear Energy Generation and Waste Transmutation Using an Accelerator-Driven Intense Thermal Neutron Source, Rep. LANL-UR-91-2601 (1991). V. S. Kagramanyan, A. L. Kochetkov, and A. G. Kochetkov, "Role of fast reactors in the solution of the problems of long-lived radioactive wastes," Book of Abstracts. Third Annual Scientific Conference of the Nuclear Society International, Moscow, Sept. 14-18, St. Petersburg, p. 446. S. B. Bobrov, E. I. Inyutin, V. I. Matveev, et al., "Uses of fast reactors in the USSR for radioisotopes production and minor actinides burning," in: Proc. Intern. Conf. on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles, Kyoto, Japan, Oct. 28-Nov. 1(1991), Vol. 2, p. 19.4-1. V. M. Murogov, M. F. Troyanov, V. G. Ilyunin, and V. Ya. Rudneva, "A new concept of fast reactors, the potentialities of burning actinides and weapon-grade plutonium in them," in: Proc. Intern. Conf. on Design and Safety of Advanced Nuclear Power Plants, Tokyo, Japan Oct. 25-29 (1992), pp. 3-5.

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