A new paradigm for breeding of nuclear fuel. (November 2019) - Wallenius, Janne
Abstract: Breeding of nuclear fuel from fertile nuclides may allow to extend known nuclear fuel resources from a century to thousands of years. In this article, we show that the requirement for a breeder reactor fuel to feature an effective neutron production per absorption larger than 2 ( η > 2 ) breaks down for fertile and fissionable nuclides meeting two criteria related to the relative magnitude of capture and fission cross sections. Moreover, we find that a breeding ratio larger than unity can be achieved for fuels consisting of a single nuclide, in spite of the this nuclide featuring η < 2 . In particular, neptunium is identified as a nuclear fuel that can sustain a reactivity increase over time up to a burn-up exceeding 240 GWd/ton in a fast neutron spectrum.