Liquid metal cooled variable geometry reactor structure

This paper presents a new type of fuel that allows a high burnup rate, leaves the used fuel in a easy to reprocess form and reduces the quantity of radioactive wastes. The present solid fuel can not reach high burnup due to the mechanical damage induced by the fission products which once deposited inside the fuel, chemically interacts weakening the bonds, agglomerates on the grains boundaries generates fuel pellet swelling and cracking. To remove these disadvantages the fuel has to be redesigned to remove the fission products and to modify the heat gradient such as to get no damages from this. The new fuel is composed of micro-beads with the diameter smaller than the effective range of the fission products. The fission products will stop outside the fuel beads, into a liquid medium with higher thermal conductivity, and insensitive to collision damage. The fuel beads will be placed on a woven metallic mesh with elastic properties. To maintain the reactivity constant the elastic fuel will be compressed inside the reaction channel that assures a very high burnup. The cooling is done by liquid metal, which together with the isotopic fuel drives to a fast or epithermal reactor. The online fission products elimination equipment assures the high burnup making the fast reactor similar to a living being because it eliminates the poisons along with operation while the breeding and transmutation are independent policies inside the safety limits