From: mbrexchange-admin@list.ans.org
[mailto:mbrexchange-admin@list.ans.org] On
Behalf Of Franta, Jaroslav
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 2:44
PM
To: mbrexchange@list.ans.org;
cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.mcmaster.ca; Radsafe (E-mail)
Subject: [MbrExchange] RE:
[cdn-nucl-l] PBMRs vs Fast Reactors
George
Stanford wrote on Friday September 10, 2004 12:07 PM
<snip>
As I understand it, although the
burnup in such a reactor can be considerably better than in a thermal reactor
(even with recycle), there is still
an inventory of actinides to dispose of. It is also my understanding that
spent PBMR fuel is very difficult
to recycle -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong -- to recover the
actinides
for burning in a fast-neutron
spectrum, which could extract the (very considerable) unexploited energy and
eliminate the long-term waste.
<end
quote>
I think
there may be some confusion stemming from the fact that the PBMR uses carbon
"pebble" fuel, which people perhaps assume means that the uranium is
in carbide form -- which would indeed be very difficult to recycle.
But in
fact the uranium "kernels" within the grahite balls are made of
uranium dioxide, like any other nuke plant fuel.
So, the
recycling must obviously only involve the extra step of separating the UO2 from
the graphite, once its puverised. That shouldn't be too hard, considering the
great difference in density.....
Jaro
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