Self-fueling (233U) regime for a CANDU heavy-water power reactor

The possibility of using a thorium-uranium fuel cycle efficiently with a CANDU heavy-water power reactor is examined. A computational investigation of two operating regimes of the reactor is performed. It demonstrated that it is possible in practice to accumulate the required amount of ²³³U at the first stage of operation by burning a certain amount of power-grade plutonium or enriched uranium. It is shown that using only ²³³U accumulations it is possible to operate a high-capacity power reactor in a self-fueling regime for a long time (up to 20 or more years). Substantiation of the regime is based only on the CANDU power reactor technology which has been perfected in practice.Translated from Atomnaya Ènergiya, Vol. 97, No. 4, pp. 269–275, October, 2004.