A high-gain fusion-fission reactor for producing uranium-233
Abstract
The neutronics of several hybrid fission-fusion reactors were analyzed using a computational method based on the ANISN transport code (Engle, 1967) to develop a design capable of producing large quantities of U-233 while maintaining a tritium breeding ratio greater than unity. In the optimum design, an equilibrium concentration of Pu-239 and U-238 replaces thorium in a converter region, significantly increasing the multiplication of 14-MeV source neutrons. The tritium and fissile breeding rates of the reactor are 1.052 and 1.880, respectively, and 3.537 U-233 nuclei are produced per fusion neutron. The results of two series of time-dependent calculations, analyzing the long-term operation of a near optimal hybrid reactor for U-233 production and short-term operation to produce the 30,000 kg of Pu-239 required to initiate the long-term process, are presented.
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Technology
- Pub Date:
- June 1976
- DOI:
- 10.13182/NT76-A31604
- Bibcode:
- 1976NucTe..29..392S
- Keywords:
-
- Breeder Reactors;
- Fusion-Fission Hybrid Reactors;
- Reactor Design;
- Uranium 233;
- Blankets;
- Economic Analysis;
- Neutrons;
- Plutonium Isotopes;
- Time Dependence;
- Tritium;
- Nuclear and High-Energy Physics