CORE PERFORMANCE OF EQUILIBRIUM FAST-REACTORS FOR DIFFERENT COOLANT MATERIALS AND FUEL TYPES

Parametric studies with several coolant and fuel materials in the equi librium state are performed for fast reactors in which natural uranium is fed and all of the actinides are confined. Sodium, sodium-potassiu m, lead, lead-bismuth and helium coolant materials, and oxide, nitride and metal fuels are employed to compare the neutronic characteristics in the equilibrium state. As to the criticality performance, sodium-p otassium shows the best performance among the liquid metal coolants an d the metallic fuel indicates the best performance. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.