Conversion of high enriched uranium in thorium-232-based oxide fuel for light and heavy water reactors: MOX-T fuel Original Research Article

This paper discusses the possibility of using military high enriched uranium and plutonium in thorium oxide fuel for light and heavy water reactors (LWRs and HWRs). It is shown that such a fuel has several important advantages: (i) 239Pu and other long-living actinides are generated in quantities which are at least 100 times less than in conventional fuel; (ii) neutron emission is lower by a factor of more than 100; (iii) 233U is generated and burnt (the conversion factor for LWRs is 0.64–0.68 and for HWRs about 0.88); (iv) thorium is utilized and the total available amount of nuclear fuel is increased. The problem of non-proliferation of fissile material is also discussed and it is shown that the supervision of such fuel does not differ essentially from the supervision of low enriched uranium fuel with plutonium generation.