NuScale Power completed a study supporting the suitability of the company’s small modular reactor to effectively dispose of plutonium in the U.K. The study commissioned by the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) evaluated scenarios with partial and full-core loading of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel. The study confirmed that MOX could be used in the NuScale core with minimal effect on the reactor’s design and operation. The study also demonstrated that a 12-module NuScale plant with 100 percent MOX cores could consume a 100 metric-ton stockpile of discharged plutonium in about 40 years, generating approximately 200 million megawatt-hours of electricity. The NuScale Power Module is a technology with the potential to be fueled by either conventional light water reactor fuel or MOX fuel. More than 100 metric tons of civil plutonium is managed at the Sellafield site in northwest England, but the U.K. government has been looking for ways to either dispose of or reuse it.
Power Engineering 20th Jan 2016 read more »