公开(公告)号：US5513226A

公开(公告)日：1996-04-30

申请号：US248319

申请日：1994-05-23

申请人： Alan M. Baxter ,  Richard K. Lane

发明人： Alan M. Baxter ,  Richard K. Lane

IPC分类号： G21C1/12 ,  G21C1/30 ,  G21C3/04 ,  G21C3/28 ,  G21C7/00 ,  G21C7/04 ,  G21G1/08

CPC分类号： G21C1/30 ,  G21C1/12 ,  G21C1/306 ,  G21C3/042 ,  G21C3/28 ,  G21C7/00 ,  G21C7/04 ,  G21Y2002/201 ,  G21Y2002/60 ,  G21Y2002/601 ,  G21Y2004/20 ,  G21Y2004/60 ,  Y02E30/33 ,  Y02E30/37 ,  Y10S376/901

摘要： Plutonium is effectively and economically rendered unsuitable for employment in a device for creating a nuclear detonation. Weapons-grade plutonium is made into ceramic fuel in the form of spheroids of submillimeter size, coated with multi-layer fission-product-retentive coatings and disposed in sealed fuel chambers in graphite block fuel elements. These elements are used to form a core for a modular helium-cooled high temperature nuclear reactor which is operated to efficiently generate power by causing the hot high pressure helium coolant to drive a gas turbine directly connected to an electrical generator, which nuclear fuel core has about a 3-year lifetime. Spent nuclear fuel elements are removed at the end of 3 years and shifted to form the core for an accelerator-driven helium-cooled reactor wherein a subcritical core of spent fuel elements is safely caused to effectively continuously fission by a neutron flux created by a Linac which bombards a lead target with a beam of high energy protons. At the end of 1 to 2 more years, more than 99% of the original Pu-239 has fissioned or been transmuted, and the isotope distribution of remaining plutonium renders it no longer useful for carrying out a nuclear detonation. Such fuel elements can be securely stored without reprocessing in simple metal canisters in a long-term repository.

摘要翻译： 钚在有效和经济上不适合用于创造核爆炸装置的工作。 武器级钚制成陶瓷燃料，其形式为亚毫米尺寸的球体，涂覆有多层裂变产物保持性涂层，并设置在石墨块燃料元件的密封燃料室中。 这些元件用于形成用于模块化氦冷却的高温核反应堆的核心，其通过使热高压氦冷却剂驱动直接连接到发电机的燃气轮机而被操作以有效地发电，该核燃料芯具有 大约3年的一生。 消耗的核燃料元件在3年结束时被去除，并转移到形成用于加速器驱动的氦冷却反应器的核心，其中乏燃料元素的亚临界核心被安全地引起由线性加速器产生的中子通量有效地连续裂变 它用一束高能质子轰击了一个铅靶。 在1至2年的最后，原始Pu-239的99％以上已经分裂或转变，剩余钚的同位素分布使其不再适用于进行核爆炸。 这种燃料元件可以安全地存储，而不需要在长期储存库中的简单金属罐中进行再处理。