CONVERSION OF HIGH ENRICHED URANIUM IN THORIUM-232-BASED OXIDE FUEL FOR LIGHT AND HEAVY-WATER REACTORS - MOX-T FUEL

This paper discusses the possibility of using military high enriched u ranium and plutonium in thorium oxide fuel for light and heavy water r eactors (LWRs and HWRs). It is shown that such a fuel has several impo rtant advantages: (i) Pu-239 and other long-living actinides are gener ated in quantities which are at least 100 times less than in conventio nal fuel; (ii) neutron emission is lower by a factor of more than 100; (iii) U-233 is generated and burnt (the conversion factor for LWRs is 0.64-0.68 and for HWRs about 0.88); (iv) thorium is utilized and the total available amount of nuclear fuel is increased. The problem of no n-proliferation of fissile material is also discussed and it is shown that the supervision of such fuel does not differ essentially from the supervision of low enriched uranium fuel with plutonium generation