Transmutation Characteristics in a Pb-Bi Cooled Fast Reactor, PEACER-300

A design study of 850 MWt lead-bismuth cooled reactor cores is performed to maximize the transmutation of both TRU nuclides in homogeneous fuel pin and long-lived fission products in separate target pins. Transmutation of minor actinide under a closed recycling was analyzed with assumption that decontamination factors in pyro-reprocessing plant data be reasonably high. A parametric study is performed to acquire high transmutation performance by changing feed fuel composition, P/D ratio, active core height and fuel cycle strategy. The optimized design parameter were chosen as of a flat core shape with 50 cm in active core height and 5 m in core diameter, loaded with 17 x 17 arrayed fuel assemblies. A pitch to diameter ratio is 2.2, operating coolant temperature range is 300 deg C ∼ 400 deg C, and core consists of 3 different enrichment zones with one year cycle length. Performance of designed core showed a high transmutation capability with support ratio of 2.085, large negative temperature feedback coefficients, and sufficient shutdown margin with 20 B4C control assemblies. (authors)