Design of an equilibrium core 1000 MWt Sodium-Cooled Heterogeneous Innovative Burner Reactor

In this research a sodium-cooled fast reactor is designed for the transmutation of minor actinides (MAs). The equilibrium core was designed in ERANOS 2.1 and verified in MCNPX 2.6.0. The design is innovative in the use of moderated and unmoderated heterogeneous MA targets in the core. Additionally the driver fuel uses a Np-Pu-U oxide to further help reduce the radiotoxicity of wastes from used nuclear fuel (UNF). The core design improves the transuranic feed rate of the burner by 27% while maintaining low assembly peak-to-average power. All of the major core design parameters are similar to the homogeneous design and the maximum clad damage for discharged fuel is expected to be less than 120 dpa.