METHOD OF OPERATING FAST NEUTRON REACTOR WITH NITRIDE FUEL AND LIQUID METAL COOLANT

摘要

FIELD: physics.SUBSTANCE: method of operating a nuclear reactor is carried out in a closed fuel cycle with switch over several lifetimes to operating on uranium-plutonium nitride fuel in equilibrium mode. The starting load fuel used is uranium nitride enriched to 12.5-14%, to which neptunium is added in amount of 1.5-3% of the mass of heavy fuel atoms. The enriched uranium nitride contains theN isotope in amount of at least 80% of the total amount of nitrogen. In each subsequent load, content of theN isotope in the nitride of the fuel mixture is reduced by 10-30% compared to the previous amount until achieving its natural value.EFFECT: reducing the mass of the loaded fuel at start to the mass of the uranium-plutonium fuel of the equilibrium composition, which enables to avoid correcting the critical mass of fuel during the transition period.2 dwg