Use of molybdenum as a structural material of fuel elements for improving the safety of nuclear reactors

Abstract

Main purpose of the study is justifying the use of molybdenum as a structural material of fuel elements for improving the safety of nuclear reactors. Particularity of used molybdenum is that its isotopic composition corresponds to molybdenum, which is obtained as the tailing during operation of the separation cascade for producing a material for medical diagnostics of cancer. When performing the study the neutron-physical properties of isotopes of natural molybdenum (nuclear data library JENDL-4.0) and thermal properties of metallic molybdenum were used. The following results were obtained: 1. A method for reducing the thermal constant of fuel elements for light water and fast reactors by using dispersion fuel in cylindrical fuel rods containing, for example, granules of metallic U-Mo-alloy into Mo-matrix was proposed. 2. The necessity of molybdenum enrichment by weakly absorbing isotopes was shown. 3. Total use of isotopic molybdenum will be more than 50%. A method for reducing the thermal constant of the fuel elements, allowing us to increase the safety of light water and fast nuclear reactors by using dispersion fuel in cylindrical fuel rods containing, for example, granules of metallic U-Mo-alloy into Mo-matrix with enrichment by weakly absorbing isotopes of molybdenum is proposed.