Preliminary Design and Neutronic Analysis of a Laser Fusion Driven Actinide Waste Burning Hybrid Reactor

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Abstract
A conceptual study of actinide waste partitioning and transmutation options has been performed. The goal was to identify an actinide burner system that could be expected to perform efficiently within the framework of a demonstrated controlled thermonuclear reactor technology. Reasonable extrapolations in technologies that could be expected to develop during the same time frame as the fusion driver itself are utilized. The laser fusion driven actinide waste burner (LDAB) system investigated uses partitioned fission power reactor generated actinide wastes dissolved in a molten tin alloy as feed material (or fuel). A novel fuel processing concept based on the high-temperature precipitation of “actinide-nitrides” from a liquid tin solution is proposed. This concept will allow for fission product removal to be performed entirely within the device at high burnup. No attempt has been made to optimize this system, but potential performance is impressive. The equilibrium LDAB design consumes 7.6 MT/yr of actinide waste. This corresponds to the waste output from 136 light water reactors [1000 MW(electric)]. The mean life of an actinide atom in the LDAB is only 4.5 yr, and actinides, once charged to the LDAB, might be reprocessed fewer times during irradiation than in previously proposed systems.

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