Roadmap of Graphite Moderator and Graphite-Matrix TRISO Fuel Management Options
Name
Roadmap of Graphite Moderator and Graphite-Matrix TRISO Fuel Management Options.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.6 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3f784d52e0435ffe5a1340627e9b1e04
Author(s)
Forsberg, CW
Date Issued
September 1, 2024
Journal
Nuclear Technology
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Citation
Forsberg, C. W. (2024). Roadmap of Graphite Moderator and Graphite-Matrix TRISO Fuel Management Options. Nuclear Technology, 210(9), 1623–1638.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Most high-temperature reactors use graphite as a moderator and structural material. This includes high-temperature gas-cooled reactors with helium cooling and TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel particles embedded in graphite, as well as fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactors with clean salt coolant and TRISO fuel particles embedded in graphite and thermal spectrum molten salt reactors with a graphite moderator and fuel dissolved in the salt. The largest volume radioactive waste stream from these reactors is the irradiated graphite. We describe herein a roadmap for management of these graphite wastes that contain radioactive 14C, tritium, and other radionuclides. There may be some graphite wastes with sufficiently low radioactivity levels that can be treated as nonradioactive waste and managed like other graphite waste. Management options for the graphite include (1) direct disposal, (2) recycled back to the reactor or other nuclear applications, and (3) oxidizing the graphite with release as an effluent or underground sequestration of the carbon dioxide. Cosequestration of this carbon dioxide with carbon dioxide from industrial, biological, and cement production processes can isotopically dilute the 14C before sequestration to eliminate the possibility of exceeding individual radiation exposure limits. We also describe options for processing graphite-matrix TRISO fuel, including separating the bulk graphite to reduce the volumes of used fuel for disposal or processing to recover fissile materials. The inventories of radioactive isotopes in different carbon wastes vary by many orders of magnitude; thus, there is no single economic option for the management of all graphite waste.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
MIT Energy Initiative
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2337311
