Feasibility analysis of MA transmutation in radial fuel shuffling TWR

TWR can make use of non-enriched fuel and obtain very high burnup without the need of fuel reprocessing. TWR is an effective way of fuel utilization besides the closed fuel cycle. In this paper, the feasibility of MA transmutation in a TWR was analyzed to further excavate the fuel utilization of this type of reactor. MA was homogeneously charged in the self-designed 1 250 MWt board type radial fuel shuffling sodium cooled TWR core, and the MA weight fraction is from 2.0% to 12.0%. A self-developed MCNP-ORIGEN coupled code was applied to perform burnup calculation. The results indicate that the transmutation amount increases linearly with the MA weight fraction, while the transmutation rate parabolically varies with the increase of the MA weight fraction. Neutronic safety parameters, such as the core effective multiplication factor, Doppler feedback coefficient, void worth coefficient and effective delayed neutron fraction, were compared under different MA weight fractions. The results indicate that the core effective multiplication factor and the void worth coefficient increase with the MA weight fraction, while the Doppler feedback coefficient and the effective delayed neutron fraction decrease with the increase of the MA weight fraction.