COMPARATIVE STUDY FOR MINOR ACTINIDE TRANSMUTATION IN VARIOUS FAST REACTOR CORE CONCEPTS

A comparative evaluation of minor actinide (MA) transmutation property was performed for various fast reactor core concepts. The differences of MA transmutation property were classified by the variations of fuel type (oxide, nitride, metal), coolant type (sodium, lead, carbon dioxide) and design philosophy. Both nitride and metal fuels bring about 10 % larger MA transmutation amount compared with oxide fuel. The MA transmutation amount is almost unchanged by the difference between sodium and lead coolants, while carbon dioxide causes a reduction by about 10 % compared with those. The changes of MA transmutation property by fuel and coolant types are comparatively small. The effects caused by the difference of core design are rather significant. 522 1