High fuel burn-up and nonproliferation in PWR-type reactor on the basis of modified Th-fuel

Neutronics-physical characteristics of the fuel lattice of a PWR-type reactor cooled by light water and by a mixture of light and heavy water have been analyzed. Th-fuel containing an essential amount of 231Pa and 232U is used, which allows an increase in fuel burn-up by a factor of 2-5 compared with that of traditional oxide uranium fuel with light water. It is important to underline that this is attained under the negative coolant density reactivity effect using cross sections of 231Pa and 232U from the updated JENDL-3.2 nuclear library. This radical increase of fuel burn-up is accompanied by a small change of reactivity during fuel irradiation (K∞=1.1 / 1.0), that favorably affects safety parameters of the reactor operation. A considerable percentage of 232U in fuel, and consequently in U, is a strong barrier against the proliferation of such weapon nuclide as 233U. (authors)