A simple analytical method on the growth of the 233U-Pu crossed progeny cycle power systems

A simple analytical method on the growth of the 233U-Pu crossed progeny cycle power generating systems under the energy center concept (CPC system), which is an idea to prevent the diversion of the nuclear material, is proposed. The growth of the reactor capacity of a CPC system is described by differential equations based on the mass balance of fissile materials. By the approximate solutions of these equations, the time-dependent growth indices of CPC systems are derived as the functions of reactor cores and fuel cycle characteristics. The growth indices are shown to be effective to select the optimum CPC system from a viewpoint of the growth of reactor capacities and the share of the civilian reactor capacity. (author)