Fast-Spectrum Chloride Molten Salt Reactor Having Characteristics of Fuel Self-Sufficiency

Abstract

Burnup characteristics of a fast-spectrum chloride molten salt reactor (Cl-MSR) are studied to utilize the trans-uranium element (TRU) and depleted uranium effectively. The fuel salt used is a mixed salt of NaCl, CaCl₂, UCl₃ and TRUCl₃. This fuel salt is expected to have a solidification temperature of about 530℃ and a heavy metal solubility of about 30 mol％. When the uranium inventory is 66.0 tons and the reprocessing rate is 18.3 liter/day, the fuel conversion ratio of Cl-MSR becomes about 1.0 after 16 years of reactor operation supplying both ²³⁸U and TRU. After that, Cl-MSR can continue to operate on ²³⁸U supply only and can confine TRU in its primary loop for a long period of time without increasing or decreasing its amount. By using TRU and depleted uranium currently existing in Japan, 14 Cl-MSRs can continue to generate 14 GW_e electricity for more than 1,000 years. These burnup characteristics of Cl-MSR are analyzed by SRAC2006 with SRACLIB-JDL40.