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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Spent fuel transfer project completed at INL
Work crews at Idaho National Laboratory have transferred 40 spent nuclear fuel canisters into long-term storage vaults, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has reported.
E. A. Mason, J. A. Larrimore
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 9 | Number 3 | March 1961 | Pages 332-340
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE61-A25884
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In reactors fueled with thorium, increasing specific power leads to reduction of fuel reactivity lifetime and conversion ratio because of the appreciable decay time and neutron absorption cross section of Pa233. A generalized study of these effects in thorium-U233 fueled reactors has been carried out using a simplified reactor model. It was found that the most important specific power effect on fuel reactivity is the holdup of Pa233, rather than its burnout to U234. Using conventional cost bases, the effect of specific power on the fuel costs for thorium fueled reactors has been shown to be small in the range of practical specific powers.