Assessment of Breed and Burn Concepts

Abstract:

Alternatives to the conventional open and closed nuclear fuel cycle have been proposed with the aim of realizing some of the benefits of recycle at lower cost and reduced proliferation concerns. In particular, a class of fuel cycles – referred to as “modified open cycle” – avoids or limits actinide separations normally effected for recycle while targeting reduction of spent fuel accumulation, improvement of waste management and enhancement of uranium utilization. Reactor concepts employing this modified open cycle approach have recently been proposed by both commercial and research organizations. Several of them rely on the “breed-and-burn” concept first conceived more than 50 years ago. The design principles and performance characteristics of these concepts will be reviewed in the presentation, and a critical assessment will be made of their ability to meet the performance, safety and economic goals for future reactor and fuel cycle systems.

Bio:

Hussein Khalil is the director of Argonne’s Nuclear Engineering Division and is responsible for the Lab’s research on nuclear reactor technology and nuclear non-proliferation. He has worked at Argonne since 1983 and became a Senior Scientist there in 2001. He has a Ph.D. from MIT (1983) and an MBA from the University of Chicago (1996). Dr. Khalil’s research background is in nuclear-reactor and fuel cycle analysis. He has made extensive contributions to the improvement and validation of reactor physics analysis methods and the optimization of liquid-metal cooled fast reactor design. Dr. Khalil leads U.S. Department of Energy sponsored research on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear energy systems. He is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and one of two U.S. DOE representatives to the Experts Group of the Generation IV International Forum. He has written or co-written approximately 150 journal articles and other publications.