Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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AGA: Arbeitsgruppe Physik und Abrüstung

AGA 7: Nuclear Proliferation

AGA 7.2: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 17:00–17:30, DO24 Reuter Saal

Proliferation Risks of Small, Fast Reactors — •Friederike Frieß, Moritz Kütt, and Matthias Englert — IANUS, TU Darmstadt

Small modular reactors are promoted as an alternative to meet the world's growing energy demands, often with an emphasis on enhanced proliferation resistance. We assessed the proliferation attractiveness of a fast liquid sodium cooled reactor design based on the Toshiba 4S and calculated the isotopic composition and total amount of plutonium produced in the fuel during and after irradiation as well as the dose rate of the spent fuel.

For the analysis we used the neutron transport code MCNP and validated the model by calculating criticality and flux distributions in the core model. Burn-up calculations were performed with VESTA and MCMATH, the data from both codes were processed with Magicplot.

The fissile material attractiveness was assessed using the Figure of Merit introduced by Bathke et al. Dose rates of the spent fuel were calculated to compare with spent fuel from conventional light water reactors. The results show that several significant quantities of weapon-grade plutonium are produced in the core during the proposed reactor lifetime.