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231Pa and 232U Production in a Fusion Breeder to Aid Nonproliferation with Thorium Fission Fuel Cycles

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231Pa and 232U Production in a Fusion Breeder to Aid Nonproliferation with Thorium Fission Fuel Cycles Vallecitos Molten Salt Research Report No. 5 Rev.1 September 9, 2014 231Pa and 232U production in a fusion breeder to aid nonproliferation with thorium fission fuel cycles Ralph W. Moir Abstract 231Pa is made especially copiously in a fusion reactor blanket by n,2n reactions on 232Th owing to fusion’s uniquely high neutron energy being well above the reaction threshold unlike fission neutrons. The 231Pa can be extracted for use in making thorium cycles more proliferation resistant or left in the fusion reactor’s blanket to produce 232U for self- protection of the produced 233U or some of both. Typical fusion production rates of 231Pa 233 and U are of order 0.1 and 2 kg per full power year per MWfusion, respectively. Neutrons captured in 231Pa produce 232U that contributes to making 233U a 231 nonproliferant. Pa revenues per Wnucleary range from 0.08 $ to 0.5 $ depending on blanket design and market value of isotopes. By comparison, the electricity revenues is typically 0.1 $ at Q=2 and falling for Q<2 (Q=fusion power/input power). 1. Introduction This note describes a fusion breeder designed to produce 231Pa, 232U and 233U for use in molten salt reactors that are described in a companion note.1 Special emphasis is given to nonproliferation of weapons useable materials. As opposed to a fission breeder reactor, a fusion breeder reactor can produce far more fissile material for the same amount of nuclear power by an order of magnitude so that we can think of a fusion breeder being located in a site and supplying the isotopes (231Pa, 232U and 233U) to dozens of fission reactors at various sites. We prefer to use molten salt in both the fusion breeder and the “client” fission reactors for cost and safety reasons. The plan to satisfy nonproliferation concerns is two fold: 1-spike the fissile material 233U with the 2.6 MeV gamma emitting 232U so that the 2 standard of “self-protection” is achieved and 2-apply safeguards, transparency and openness of all operations If needed, 232U can be produced in situ in a fission reactor from neutron capture in 231Pa that is supplied by the fusion breeder in a unique way because the neutron reaction that 1. R. W. Moir, “Nonproliferation role of 231Pa and 232U in a Molten Salt Reactor on the Th-233U fuel cycle,” Vallecitos Molten Salt Research Report No. 6, Rev.1 (September 9, 2014). 2. When the gamma radiation activity is 1 Sv/h one meter from 5 kg of 233U if the 232U content =2.4% one year after removal of all decay products, the IAEA states the material is so harmful (deadly in a few hours) to be near by that it is designated to be “self-protected”. J. Kang and F. N. von Hippel, “U-232 and the proliferation resistance of U-233 in spent fuel,” Science & Global Security, 9 (2001) 1-32. 1 produces 231Pa has a threshold at ~6 MeV and the 14 MeV fusion neutrons are above this threshold. 2. Background Fusion technology is not known well enough to build a fusion breeder today to meet the requirements that will be spelled out in this note and its companion.1 However, the fusion technology requirements are not far from today’s state of the art and significantly short of the goal of the international fusion development goal of commercial electrical power production. Therefore, we can contemplate the possibility of a second generation molten salt reactor utilizing fusion produced isotopes whereas the first generation could use enriched uranium and thorium. The first generation of reactor would use nonweapons grade uranium, that is 235U <20% of 235U +238U as its startup and supplied makeup fuel. Then very similar designs could use fusion produced 233U along with the nonproliferants 232U and 231Pa that are the subject of this note. 3. Production rates and revenues for 233U and 231Pa The number of reactions Fn,2n, Fn,3n and Fn, γ and usually tritium production is 1.1 tritons all per source 14.1 MeV neutron. The production rate PR is then: 232.038 "1.66054 "10#27 kg " 3600 " 24 " 365.25 PR = F ! P (MW ) fusion 17.58 MeV / fusion "1.602 "10#19 J / eV kg = 4.318 F ! Pfusion (MW ) MWfusion ! y (1) N(E) ission spectra 0.4 2.5 N(E) fusion spectra/5 Th232 n,2n 2.0 0.3 Pa233 n,2n U233 n,2n 1.5 0.2 Th232 n,3n 1.0 0.1 cross section, barns 0.5 0 0.0 Fission and fusion neutron spectra 0 5 10 15 20 Neutron energy, MeV Fig. 1. Neutron spectra from fission and fusion and n,2n cross sections relevant to producing 231Pa: 232Th(n,2n)231Pa. 2 For the Li/MS case (M=1.37, where M is the blanket energy released produced by each fusion neutron divided by 14.1 MeV, Pnuclear/Pfusion=0.2+0.8M=1.296) where Li is the neutron multiplication material and molten salt is the thorium carrier we have approximate reaction numbers3 (from p 15 of Table 3 of the reference). The geometry is cylindrical but toroidal or spherical geometry should give results within <±20%. 231 Fn,2n = 0.0246 Pa 32,800 y half-life 230 Fn,3n = 0.00229 Th 75,400 y half-life 233 233 Fn, γ = 0.515 Pa 27.0 d half-life, decays to U 231 kg Pa $106, 000 231 PR = 0.1062 Pfusion (MW ) " Pfusion (MW ) for $1000 / g of Pa MWfusion ! y MWfusion ! y kg 230Th = 0.009887 Pfusion (MW ) MWfusion ! y kg 233Pa $130, 000 = 2.224 P (MW ) " P (MW ) for $60 / g of 233U MW ! y fusion MW ! y fusion fusion fusion (2) The example market values used here for 231Pa and 233U are derived in a companion note,1 233U usually has 2.4% 232U, enough to satisfy IAEA standard for “self-protection” in our example cases. The production rate and revenues per unit of fusion power can be converted to per unit nuclear power. Pnuclear/Pfusion=0.2+0.8M=1.296. The revenues then become 0.0819 231 233 $/Wnucleary for Pa and 0.100 $/Wnucleary for U for a total of 0.182 $/Wnucleary. For the Be/MS case (M=2.1, Pnuclear/Pfusion=0.2+0.8M=1.88) where Be is the neutron multiplication material and molten salt is the thorium and lithium carrier we have approximate reaction numbers1: 231 Fn,2n = 0.0267 Pa 230 Fn,3n = 0.0054 Th 233 Fn, γ = 0.780 Pa 231 kg Pa $115,300 231 PR = 0.1153 Pfusion (MW ) " Pfusion (MW ) for $1000 / g of Pa MWfusion ! y MWfusion ! y kg 230Th = 0.02331 Pfusion (MW ) MWfusion ! y kg 233Pa $202, 000 = 3.368 P (MW ) " P (MW ) for $60 / g of 233U MW ! y fusion MW ! y fusion fusion fusion (3) 3. R. W. Moir. Production of U-232 and U-233 in a fusion-fission hybrid, Vallecitos Molten Salt Research Report No. 3 (December 21, 2010),! 37 pages. http://www.ralphmoir.com/media/moirProdu232_12_21_2010.pdf 3 231 233 The revenues then become 0.0613 $/Wnucleary for Pa and 0.107 $/Wnucleary for U for a total of 0.169 $/Wnucleary. In this case the 231Pa production rate decreases by 30% but the 233U production is about the same compared to the Li/MS case for the same nuclear power. Other blanket designs have different 231Pa production rates. Higher thorium concentrations increases Fn,2n but typically lowers Fn,γ. For example an all molten salt blanket (M=2, Pnuclear/Pfusion=0.2+0.8M=1.80) with no separate Li or Be multiplier yields the following rates1: 231 Fn,2n =0.188 Pa 230 Fn,3n =0.051 Th 233 Fn,γ =0.236 Pa 231 kg Pa $812, 000 231 PR = 0.812 Pfusion (MW ) " Pfusion (MW ) for $1000 / g of Pa MWfusion ! y MWfusion ! y kg 230Th = 0.220 Pfusion (MW ) MWfusion ! y kg 233Pa $60, 000 = 1.019 P (MW ) " P (MW ) for $60 / g of 233U MW ! y fusion MW ! y fusion fusion fusion (4) 231 233 The revenues then become 0.451 $/Wnucleary for Pa and 0.033 $/Wnucleary for U for a total of 0.484 $/Wnucleary. In this case the 231Pa production rate increases 5.5 times (~7 times when including the 230Th production) but the 233U production rate drops a factor of 3.2 compared to the Li/MS case for the same nuclear power. 231Pa production can be increased significantly with modest reduction in 233U production by placing some molten salt containing thorium in front of the lithium in the Li/MS case. If thorium metal were used the enhancement would be even stronger as can be inferred from the following example. 6 For an ideal infinite media of Th/ Li case (M=3.7, Pnuclear/Pfusion=0.2+0.8M=3.16) (83.24 a% 232Th and 16.76 a%6Li) where tritium breeding is the usual 1.1 per source neutrons, we have approximate reaction numbers: 231 Fn,2n = 0.568 Pa 230 Fn,3n = 0.235 Th 233 Fn, γ = 1.417 Pa 4 231 kg Pa $2, 453, 000 231 PR = 2.453 Pfusion (MW ) " Pfusion (MW ) for $1000 / g of Pa MWfusion ! y MWfusion ! y kg 230Th = 1.1015 Pfusion (MW ) MWfusion ! y kg 233Pa $367, 000 = 6.118 P (MW ) " P (MW ) for $60 / g of 233U MW ! y fusion MW ! y fusion fusion fusion (5) 231 233 The revenues then become 0.776 $/Wnucleary for Pa and 0.117 $/Wnucleary for U for a total of 0.892 $/Wnucleary.
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