Mass Balance of the Pu and Minor Actinides Recycling Metal Fuel System

The mass flow of Plutonium and minor actinides is calculated for a future LWR-FBR fuel cycle model, in which a certain scale of power generation by LWRs is continued for a long period before the replacement by FBRs begins. The burnup of the LWR spent fuel is considered to be higher than the current standard. It is assumed that all the Plutonium and minor actinides recovered from LWRs are kept and used to start-up and feed metal fuel commercial FBRs. The results show that the accumulated Plutonium and minor actinides from the LWRs can be consistently consumed without further accumulation, by gradually establishing the same scale of the FBR power generation and its fuel cycle. The optimum content of the minor actinides in the standard FBR fuel is about 2 weight percents. If the FBR era is to come in the future, the extended LWR era causes no significant problem in terms of the consumption of the accumulated transuranic.