Tesis:
Exploring new coolants for nuclear breeder reactors. Applicability of beryllium fluoride molten salt.
- Autor: LAFUENTE MAZUECOS, Antonio
- Título: Exploring new coolants for nuclear breeder reactors. Applicability of beryllium fluoride molten salt.
- Fecha: 2010
- Materia: Sin materia definida
- Escuela: E.T.S. DE INGENIEROS INDUSTRIALES
- Departamentos: INGENIERIA NUCLEAR
- Acceso electrónico:
- Director/a 1º: PIERA, Mireia
- Resumen: Nuclear Fission is a mature technology which can provide for more than 15 % of the electricity generated worldwide, and it currently is the largest carbon-free energy source. However, current nuclear reactors, including the :oocalled Generation 3, are not suited for properly exploiting the available types of nuclear raw materials, namely natural Uranium and natural Thorium, Nuclear l3reeder Reactors could potentially enlarge the energy retrievable from the Uranium reserves, but they still find very negative setbacks because of their safety features (poor stabilizing mechanisms) and the security of their fuel cycle (diversion of Pu for noncivilian purposes). In fact, this is of paramount importance since, according to the Generation IV International Fonim and more recently tu the Strategic Research Agenda defmed in. SNETP, a proposal for Nuclear Sustainability will necessarily have to account for these factors. In this framework we present a novel proposal for a new molten salt (F2Be) coolant that could overcome the safety issues related to the positive void reactivity coefficient of molten metal coolants. Although it is a very innovative proposal that would require an extensive R&D program, tbis thesis presents the very appealing properties of this salt when using a specific type of fuel that is similar to that of pebble bed reactors. The main goal ,is to find a design window in the definition of a F2Be cooled reactor where the safety requirement is met. Based on this new type of coolant we also present an analysis of a potential way to achieve very high. percentages of nuclear natural materials exploitation in an alternative option to critical nuclear reactors with Pu recycling. This alternative way, based on using extemallydriven subcritical reactors with natural fuels, complies with other important criteria for achieving Sustainability in Nuclear Energy, namely the resistance to proliferation of the fuel cycle and the reduction of residual radio-toxicity of the spent fuel. The different pros and cons of the proposal will be identified and assessed to clarif’ if they could be effective show-stoppers, in an attempt to clarify the role that such technology can play in a global context where carbon-free sources of ,energy are a must. A sound programme on subcnticai fission reactor should be established and developed for this purpose, but first results highlight the interest of such a programme.