@article{6fb1d002b10e495b97eac6c1a9ace3ca,
title = "Strategies for thorium fuel cycle transition in the SD-TMSR",
abstract = "Liquid-fueled Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) systems represent advances in safety, economics, and sustainability. The MSR has been designed to operate with a Th/233U fuel cycle with 233U used as startup fissile material. Since 233U does not exist in nature, we must examine other available fissile materials to start up these reactor concepts. This work investigates the fuel cycle and neutronics performance of the Single-fluid Double-zone Thorium-based Molten Salt Reactor (SD-TMSR) with different fissile material loadings at startup: High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) (19.79%), Pu mixed with HALEU (19.79%), reactor-grade Pu (a mixture of Pu isotopes chemically extracted from Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) with 33 GWd/tHM burnup), transuranic elements (TRU) from Light Water Reactor (LWR) SNF, and 233U. The MSR burnup routine provided by SERPENT-2 is used to simulate the online reprocessing and refueling in the SD-TMSR. The effective multiplication factor, fuel salt composition evolution, and net production of 233U are studied in the present work. Additionally, the neutron spectrum shift during the reactor operation is calculated. The results show that the continuous flow of reactor-grade Pu helps transition to the thorium fuel cycle within a relatively short time (≈4.5 years) compared to 26 years for 233U startup fuel. Finally, using TRU as the initial fuel materials offers the possibility of operating the SD-TMSR for an extended period of time (≈40 years) without any external feed of 233U.",
keywords = "Burner, MSR, Monte carlo code, Online reprocessing, Thorium fuel cycle, Transuranic",
author = "O. Ashraf and Andrei Rykhlevskii and Tikhomirov, {G. V.} and Huff, {Kathryn D.}",
note = "Funding Information: Andrei Rykhlevskii conceived and designed the simulations, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, performed the computation work, and reviewed drafts of the paper. Andrei Rykhlevskii is supported by DOE ARPA-E MEITNER program award DE-AR0000983. Funding Information: Kathryn D. Huff supervised the work, conceived and contributed to conception of the simulations, and reviewed drafts of the paper. Prof. Huff is supported by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Faculty Development Program, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and DOE ARPA-E MEITNER program award DE-AR0000983. Funding Information: Osama Ashraf would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), as well as MEPhI{\textquoteright}s Competitiveness Program for providing financial support for this research. The facility and tools needed to conduct this work were supported by MEPhI. Funding Information: This research is part of the Blue Waters sustained-petascale computing project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (awards OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993) and the state of Illinois. Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Funding Information: Osama Ashraf would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), as well as MEPhI's Competitiveness Program for providing financial support for this research. The facility and tools needed to conduct this work were supported by MEPhI. The authors contributed to this work as described below. Osama Ashraf conceived and designed the simulations, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, performed the computation work, and reviewed drafts of the paper. Andrei Rykhlevskii conceived and designed the simulations, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, performed the computation work, and reviewed drafts of the paper. Andrei Rykhlevskii is supported by DOE ARPA-E MEITNER program award DE-AR0000983. G. V. Tikhomirov directed and supervised the work, conceived and designed the simulations and reviewed drafts of the paper. Prof. Tikhomirov is Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering MEPhI. Board member of Nuclear society of Russia. Kathryn D. Huff supervised the work, conceived and contributed to conception of the simulations, and reviewed drafts of the paper. Prof. Huff is supported by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Faculty Development Program, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and DOE ARPA-E MEITNER program award DE-AR0000983. This research is part of the Blue Waters sustained-petascale computing project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (awards OCI-0725070 and ACI-1238993) and the state of Illinois. Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The authors thank members of the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles (ARFC) group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for helpful discussions relating to this paper. Finally, the authors would like to thank Matthew Kozak for constructive criticism of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.anucene.2020.107656",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "148",
journal = "Annals of Nuclear Energy",
issn = "0306-4549",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}