Sustainable Modular Transmutation Reactor

Abstract

A light water reactor to safely convert depleted uranium into a fuel source that could be used as a sustainable source of energy for centuries. The reactor is a type of breed-burn reactor uniquely combined with a proliferation-resistant fuel cycle with no uranium enrichment and no plutonium isolation. It is comprised of a compact factory-produced fast region and a thermal region that produces about 95% of the core power and contains the passageways for transports of delayed-neutron emitters to the fast region, where they can provide additional neutrons (source-based mode) or all the necessary excitation without an external neutron source (self-regulating mode). A second embodiment of the invention is a small unit driven by a neutron source with beam recycling for propulsion, electrical power or radioisotope production. It could also serve as a demonstration facility for the transmutation reactor with fission-fusion fuel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.