Abstract:
Technology feasibility was studied on direct application of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) scale nuclear fusion reactor as driving neutron source to design a new type of fusion-fission hybrid power reactor and its tritium producing-nuclear fission blanket, which can cooperate the advantages of loading natural uranium fuels in initial blankets and adopting mature light water moderating and cooling technologies widely used in current PWRs. Numerical analysis with the computer code by coupling MCNP and Origen2 was performed to investigate the influences of different nuclear fuels to neutron physical characteristics of the blanket, such as the effective neutron multiplying coefficient, the tritium breeding ratio, the energy amplifier and the effectiveness of the driving fusion neutrons. The calculation results show that UO
2 employed in current nuclear power plants, the high performance ceramics of UC, UN, and the U
90Zr
10 metal alloy fuels recommended to be applied in various types of next generation nuclear fission reactors are promising candidates as the nuclear fuel of achieving adequate energy amplifying factor. However, only UC ceramics and U
90Zr
10 metal alloy fuels can satisfy simultaneously the requirement of the self-sustainable balance between tritium production and consumption for the nuclear fusion in a typical hybrid reactor. The research results are expected to have potential reference value for further exploring the new type of fusion-fission hybrid reactor to fulfill the requirement of future sustainable development of nuclear energy.