Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Marr, D. R.
• Cantley, D. A.
• Chandler, J. C.
• McCurry, D. C.
• Omberg, R. P.

Titel

Performance of thorium fueled fast breeders

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

1977

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Three studies were performed to evaluate the breeding ratio of fast breeders containing thorium. In a study of a small breeder, thorium metal and thorium oxide core designs were found to have similar breeding ratios. The slight advantage exhibited by the metal design was not considered significant since the design was based on a limited amount of thorium metal swelling data. In a study of a 1200 MWe plant, a plutonium-uranium oxide design was compared to a uranium-thorium design. The uranium-thorium design had a lower breeder ratio, but also had a negative sodium void effect. In the third study, the effect of replacing thorium oxide radial blankets with thorium metal radial blankets was evaluated. This was found to have little effect on the breeding ratio.