Burning minor actinides in a HTR energy spectrum and effects on the final radiotoxicity

The production of nuclear energy with existing nuclear reactors is equivalent to the use of low enriched uranium. But the neutron capture of the large corresponding U-238 fuel fraction also generates a build-up of plutonium isotopes and minor actinides as Neptunium, Americium and Curium. These actinides are dominant for the long time assessment of final disposal therefore a minimization of the long living isotopes is aspired. Burning the actinides in a high temperature helium cooled graphite moderated reactor (HTR) is one of these options. Using plutonium isotopes to sustain the criticality of the system is intended to avoid highly enriched uranium because of international regulations and low enriched uranium because of the build up of new actinides from neutron capture in U-238. Also fractions of plutonium isotopes are build up to minor actinides but for this absorption the overall number of actinides keeps constant. Nevertheless for the final assessment the activity and toxicity of all important actinides have to be taken into account. This paper comprises calculations for plutonium/minor actinides/thorium fuel compositions, their correlated final burn-up and the long term activity and toxicity for a generic pebble bed HTR based on the reference design of the 400 MW PBMR. In particular the behaviour of the different minor actinide isotopes in the higher thermal energy spectrum of a HTR will be discussed. Thorium based fuel – as a promising alternative to uranium based fuel – offers several advantages as a minimized build up of new Pu and MA, a higher thermal conductivity and melting point. Combining the thorium fuel with a significant fraction of minor actinides and an isotope fraction consistent with burned LWR fuel the total amount of the minor actinides stays nearly unchanged while the isotope composition significantly changes. This behaviour with respect to the initial heavy metal load and the influence on the long term activity and toxicity will be discussed.