Liquid metal fuel-gas cooled reactor

Fig. 25-3. Model section of nuclear core element for LMF-GCR liquid metal fuel gas-cooled reactor.

LIQUID METAL FUEL GAS-COOLED REACTOR Table 25-1 (continued)... 

The projections are based on a recent forecast (Case B) by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) of nuclear power growth in the United States (2) and on fuel mass-flow data developed for light water reactors fueled with uranium (LWR-U) or mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (LWR-Pu), a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), and two liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs). Nuclear characteristics of the fuels and wastes were calculated using the computer code ORIGEN (3). 

The fuel elements are held in position by grid plates in the reactor core. The fuel burnup to which a reactor may be operated is expressed as megawatt-days per kilogram (MWd/kg), where MWd is the thermal output and kg is the total uranium (sum of U-235 and U-238). In light-water power reactors the core may be operated to about 35 MWd/kg (about 3.5% burnup) before fuel elements have to be replaced. In liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) and high temperature helium gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), the burnups may exceed 100 MWd/kg ( 10% burnup of the heavy metal atoms). 

Krypton and xenon removal. The number of curies of krypton and xenon per megagram (metric ton) of spent fuel from pressurized-water, liquid-metal fast-breeder, and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors from Tables 8.7, 8.8, and 8.9 are listed in Table 10.5, together with the number of standard liters per megagram, assuming atomic weights of 85 and 133 for krypton and xenon. 

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