Physical studies of minor actinide transmutation in the accelerator-driven subcritical system

The accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) with a hard neutron energy spectrum was used to study transmutation of minor actinides (MAs). The aim of the study was to improve the efficiency of MA transmutation while ensuring that variations in the effective multiplication factor (keff) remained within safe margins during reactor operation. All calculations were completed using code COUPLE3.0. The subcritical reactor was operated at a thermal power level of 800 MW, and a mixture of mono-nitrides of MAs and plutonium (Pu) was used as fuel. Zirconium nitride (ZrN) was used as an inert matrix in the fuel elements. The initial mass composition in terms of weight percentages in the heavy metal component (IHM) was 30.6% Pu/IHM and 69.4% MA/IHM. To verify the feasibility of this MA loading scheme, variations in keff, the amplification factor of the core, maximum power density and the content of MAs and Pu were calculated over six refueling cycles. Each cycle was of 600 days duration, and therefore, there were 3600 effective full power days. Results demonstrated that the effective transmutation support ratio of MAs was approximately 28, and the ADS was able to efficiently transmute MAs. The changes in other physical parameters were also within their normal ranges. It is concluded that the proposed MA transmutation scheme for an ADS core is reasonable.