Abstract
The ways of converting atwo-region aqueous homogeneous reactor fueled with 20% 235U enriched uranium into a 233U-breeder are discussed. Numerical solutions are obtained for the burn-up equations combined with a one-group criticality condition and constant total power out-put. “Batch method” and “Continuous method” are compared. In each case, time-dependent changes in the concentrations of individual isotopes, the number of uranium isotopes supplied to the core and removed from the blanket, chemical processing rate and the ratio of the power produced in the blanket to that in the core, as well as the effect of 233U concentration in the blanket on these quantities are discussed.
We define “breeding efficiency” in this paper, which is believed to be a more accurate measure of whether a reactor is a breeder or not than the conventional breeding ratio.
