Possible scenarios for the transition to thorium fuel cycle in molten salt reactor by using enriched uranium

Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) with Th-233U fuel cycle attracts more and more attention with its excellent performance such as desirable breeding capacity, low waste production and high inherent safety. Considering the fact that there is no available 233U in the nature, it is necessary to analyze the fuel transition from enriched 235U/Th to 233U/Th and then give a flexible transition scenario for a graphite-moderated MSR. By employing an in-house developed tool which is based on SCALE6.1, two scenarios, a Breeding and Burning (B&B) scenario and a Pre-breeding scenario, are studied. The evolution of the inventories of main nuclides, net 233U production and isothermal temperature coefficient are presented and discussed in the B&B scenario. It is found that the fuel transition can be achieved smoothly by using enriched uranium with greater than 40% concentration of 235U. The fuel transition can still be accomplished with 20% enriched uranium but takes a long double time of about 79 years. Meanwhile, we perform an analysis of the Pre-breeding scenario and conclude that it is efficient to produce 233U and the double time ranges from 2.07 years for the 10-day reprocessing to 10.7 years for the 180-day reprocessing. A comparison of these two scenarios is conducted, which indicates that the B&B scenario is more favorable than the Pre-breeding scenario from the aspect of resource utilization efficiency. Finally, a combined three-stage program for developing Th-based MSRs is proposed. •The B&B scenario and the Pre-breeding scenario are analyzed to achieve the fuel transition from 235Uenr/Th to 233U/Th in MSR.•Both scenarios can achieve the transition, and the B&B scenario is more favorable due to its resource utilization efficiency.•These analyses can provide references for gradual deployment of the thorium-based MSRs and large-scale thorium utilization.