MATERIAL TYPE AND SAFEGUARDABILITY CONSIDERATIONS FOR INNOVATIVE SODIUM FAST REACTORS FUEL INCLUDING DIFFERENT MINOR ACTINIDES COMPOSITIONS

According to the Generation IV International Forum Technology Roadmap, Sodium Fast Reactors (SFR) could be a promising technology for minor actinides management. In view of a much higher radiological barrier, the addition of minor actinides to fresh fuel assemblies would change the way in which fresh fuel can be stored and handled, impacting not only on routine operations but also on the activities carried out during international safeguards inspections. While it is generally considered that the presence of minor actinides in fresh fuel assemblies would decrease the attractiveness of this potential target for a proliferator willing to divert nuclear material - thus increasing the proliferation resistance of the entire facility -, it might have perverse repercussions on the overall safeguardability of the target. In particular, the presence of minor actinides might complicate the measurement activities performed by safeguards inspectors during physical inventory verifications (PIV). The level of impact depends on the actual composition of the available fuel and might affect the current safeguards approach. This paper will present some considerations on a) the fuel assemblies’ material composition and its attractiveness for a potential weaponisation phase, b) the potential increase of the PR of a system employing MA-bearing fresh fuel, and c) the safeguardability of MA-bearing fuel assemblies.

RENDA Guido;  ALIM Fatih;  COJAZZI Giacomo;  PEERANI Paolo; 

2013-04-11

Institute of Nuclear Materials Management

JRC72399

http://www.inmm.org/Annual_Meeting_Proceedings.htm,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC72399,