Safety Issues Associated with Plutonium Involvement in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

The "VOLGA" conferences, hosted in odd-numbered years by the Department of Theoretical and Experimental Reactor Physics of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI), are some of the most prestigious technical meetings held in Russia. Traditionally, these conferences present the opportunity for reactor physicists from around the world to gather at MEPhI's holiday camp on the banks of the Volga river (near Tver) to exchange ideas and explore innovative concepts related to nuclear power development. In 1997, NATO became involved in the "VOLGA" meetings for the first time by co-sponsoring "VOLGA97" as an advanced research workshop. This workshop broke with tradition a bit in that the venue was moved from MEPhI's holiday camp to a location nearer Moscow. The workshop program was effectively organized in order to cover a broad range of topics relating to the theme of the meeting. Generally, the papers concerned safety related questions associated with utilizing both weapons-grade and reactor-grade plutonium in the nuclear fuel cycle, including facility requirements, licensing issues, proliferation risks, and a variety of advanced concepts for alternative fuel cycles. The program contained a total of ninety-nine papers presented in five days of sessions.

Zusammenfassung
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Safety Issues Asociated with Plutonium Involvement in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Moscow, 2-6 September 1997

Inhalt

1. The U.S.-Russian Joint Studies on Using Power Reactors to Disposition Surplus Weapons Plutonium as Spent Fuel.- 2. Current State of and Near Term Prospects for Plutonium Management in Russia.- 3. The Role of Nuclear Power in Sustainable Development.- 4. Plutonium Disposition Research and Related Activities at the Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium.- 5. The ISTC Projects Related to Plutonium Utilization and Disposition (Overview).- 6. Waste Partitioning and Transmutation as a Means Towards Long-Term Risk Reduction.- 7. Nuclear Criticality Safety Aspects of the Utilization of Weapons-Grade Plutonium in MOX Fuel Using Current BNFL Technology.- 8. Reducing the Proliferation Risk of Weapons Plutonium by Mixing with Reactor-Grade Plutonium.- 9. COGEMA's Contribution to the Recycling of Military Plutonium.- 10. Plutonium Incineration in LWRs. The First Step in the Double Strata Fuel Cycle.- 11. State of the Art and Outlook for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in the Russian Federation.- 12. On-Site Spent Fuel Management Based on Electrorefining.- 13. Prospects For Improvement of VVER Fuel Management and MOX Utilization.- 14. Use of Uranium-Erbium and Plutonium-Erbium Fuel in RBMK Reactors.- 15. Plutonium Management and Actinide Burning in CANDU Reactors.- 16. The Next Stage in Nuclear Power Development: Improved Pu Usage, Safety, Radioactive Waste and Non-Proliferation Features.- 17. Neutronic Aspects of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Utilization in the VVER1000 Fuel Cycle.- 18. Validation of the MCU-RFFI/A Code for Applications to Plutonium Systems and Use of the MCU-RFFI/A Code for Verification of Physics Design Codes Intended for Calculations of VVER Reactor Performance With MOX Fuel.- 19. Development of Neutronic Models for Two Types of Reactors Based on the SAPFIRPackage of Universal Algorithms.- 20. Performance Modeling for Weapons MOX Fuel in Light Water Reactors.- 21. Nuclear Power Systems Using Fast Reactors to Reduce Long-Lived Wastes.- 22. Plutonium-Fueled LMFRs: Problems of Design Optimization for Self-Protection.- 23. Equilibrium, Proliferation Resistant, Closed Fuel Cycles for LWRs.- 24. Delayed Neutron Data for Actinides Obtained from Global Level Measurements.- 25. Burning of Plutonium in Advanced Modular Pebble Bed HTRs: The Most Effective and Safe Way for Disposition.- 26. Denaturing Ex-Weapons Plutonium.- Author and Subject Index.