Characteristics of a different fuel cycle in a PBMR-400 for burning reactor grade plutonium Original Research Article

An outstanding feature of the high temperature, gas-cooled, version of a Generation IV type reactor is its versatility in application. Apart from the capacity in high temperature gas-cooled reactors to generate electricity it could desalinate (multi-effect distillation [MED] by deploying excess heat or reverse osmosis by deploying excess electricity), produce hydrogen (by deploying excess electricity), whereas this article showcases the on-line fuelling characteristics of a pebble bed reactor concept for the incineration of reactor grade plutonium, whilst producing electricity. The VSOP-A system of codes is employed to demonstrate by calculation how the standard PBMR-400 commercial reactor design offers similar inherent safety characteristics with a Pu–Th/U advanced fuel cycle. This implies that no significant design changes are necessary to implement such a fuel cycle. Furthermore, the flexibility of the pebble fuel concept is deployed to house the fertile material in one type of pebble, whilst a second type will contain the fissile or driver material.