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Estimated Transmutation Efficiency in a Molten-Salt Burner Reactor

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Atomic Energy Aims and scope

An efficiency indicator is proposed for the transmutation of Np, Am, and Cm that characterizes the relation between the burnup of these elements, the consumption of plutonium, and the production of high-level waste (except for fission products). A comparative analysis of transmutation in a molten-salt burner reactor with the salts LiF–NaF–KF and LiF–BeF2 that high transmutation efficiency, going asymptotically to 100%, depending on the volume of the core, obtains with the first salt and concentration of actinide fluorides in the range 10–20 mol.%, which experimental data show to be lower than their solubility. For the second salt LiF–BeF2, the highest transmutation efficiency ~40% obtains with core volume >15 m3. Such a reactor consumes 1.5 times more plutonium than Np, Am, and Cm.

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Correspondence to M. N. Belonogov.

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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 132, No. 1, pp. 19–23, January, 2022.

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Belonogov, M.N., Modestov, D.G., Simonenko, V.A. et al. Estimated Transmutation Efficiency in a Molten-Salt Burner Reactor. At Energy 132, 20–23 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00897-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00897-x

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