Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition

The expert group will deal with the status and trends of reactor physics, fuel performance, and fuel cycle issues related to the disposition of weapons-grade plutonium as mixed oxide fuel.

Objectives

To provide NEA member countries with up-to-date information on and develop a consensus regarding:

• Core and fuel cycle issues associated with weapons-grade plutonium disposition in thermal water reactors (PWRs, BWRs, VVER-1000s and CANDUs) and fast reactors (BN-600), including:
  • core physics;
  • fuel performance and reliability;
• the capability and flexibility of thermal water reactors and fast reactors to disposition weapons-grade plutonium within standard fuel cycles ;
• thermal water reactor and fast reactor fuel designs and fuel management approaches for maximising:
  • weapons-grade plutonium disposition rates ;
  • fuel cycle flexibility and the ability to accommodate variable weapons-grade plutonium disposition rates.
• thermal water reactor and fast reactor weapons-grade MOX fuel handling issues, including:
  • criticality;
  • nuclear and thermal characteristics of spent fuel;
  • packaging and transport of fresh and spent fuel;

The expert group will also provide advice to the nuclear community on the scientific and technical developments needed to meet the requirements (e.g. data, methods and validation experiments) for implementing weapons-grade plutonium disposition approaches. A co-ordination with complementary studies performed by other groups will be established.

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List of activities (Working group, benchmarks etc.)

 

Benchmarks

• VVER-1000 LEU and MOX Benchmark
• VENUS-2 MOX Core Benchmarks (see also WPPR)
• KRITZ2 Benchmarks
• MOX Fuel Performance Benchmark (HRP MOX Rods)
• VVER-1000 MOX Core Computational Benchmark
• Mixed-oxide (MOX) Fuel Performance Benchmark - Summary of the Results for the Halden Reactor Project MOX Rods
  

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Related conferences and meetings

• PHYSOR2008 (International Conference on the Physics of Reactors «Nuclear Power: A Sustainable Resource»)
  PHYSOR2008 website

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For more information on this expert group, please contact Dr. Enrico Sartori (sartori@nea.fr)

For more information on activities managed/supported by the NSC, please contact Claes Nordborg (Claes.Nordborg@oecd.org) Return to the NSC Home Page