Medical Radioisotope Production in a Power-Flattened ADS Fuelled with Uranium and Plutonium Dioxides

Abstract

This study presents the medical radioisotope production performance of a conceptual accelerator driven system (ADS). Lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is selected as target material. The subcritical fuel core is conceptually divided into ten equidistant subzones. The ceramic (natural U, Pu)O2 fuel mixture and the materials used for radioisotope production (copper, gold, cobalt, holmium, rhenium, thulium, mercury, palladium, thallium, molybdenum, and yttrium) are separately prepared as cylindrical rods cladded with carbon/carbon composite (C/C) and these rods are located in the subzones. In order to obtain the flattened power density, percentages of PuO2 in the mixture of UO2 and PuO2 in the subzones are adjusted in radial direction of the fuel zone. Time-dependent calculations are performed at 1000 MW thermal fission power (Pth) for one hour using the BURN card. The neutronic results show that the investigated ADS has a high neutronic capability, in terms of medical radioisotope productions, spent fuel transmutation and energy multiplication. Moreover, a good quasiuniform power density is achieved in each material case. The peak-to-average fission power density ratio is in the range of 1.02–1.28.