Advanced MOX and IMF Fuel Assembly Designs for Multi-Recycling Transuranics Available to Purchase

Several new fuel assembly designs for multi-recycling Transuranics from spent nuclear fuel are proposed and investigated. Among these are (1) Mixed Oxide Fuel with Enriched Uranium (MOX-EU), in which Plutonium oxide and U-235 enriched Uranium oxide are mixed (2) MOX fuel with Americium coating, in which a thin layer of Americium is applied to the outer surface of the MOX fuel pellet, and (3) an heterogeneous fuel assembly consists of Inert-Matrix Fuel (IMF) pins at the periphery and UOX pins in the inner zone. All these designs are compatible with standard PWR utilizing 17×17 fuel assemblies. In-reactor fuel depletion simulation and long-term isotopic decay calculation are carried out using DRAGON[1] and ORIGEN[2], separately. Transuranics mass balance and long-term radiotoxicity analyses are implemented and the results are normalized to per 1TWh-electricity produced.