Chapter 14
Application of the Resource-Renewable
Boiling Water Reactor for TRU Management
and Long-Term Energy Supply
Tetsushi Hino, Masaya Ohtsuka, Renzo Takeda, Junichi Miwa,
and Kumiaki Moriya
Abstract The RBWR (resource-renewable boiling water reactor) is an innovative
BWR that has a capability to breed and burn trans-uranium elements (TRUs) using
a multi-recycling process. The RBWR can be used as a long-term energy supply,
and it reduces the negative environmental impact that TRUs cause as they are
otherwise long-lived radioactive wastes. Various design concepts of the RBWR
core have been proposed. The RBWR-AC is a break-even reactor and the RBWRTB and RBWR-TB2 are TRU burners. The RBWR-TB is designed to burn TRUs
from the RBWR-TB itself and to burn almost all the TRUs by repeating their
recycling. The RBWR-TB is assumed to be applied for a nuclear power phase-out
scenario. The RBWR-TB2 is intended to burn TRUs from LWR spent fuels. The
RBWR-TB2 is assumed to be applied for reducing the amount of TRUs to be
managed in storage facilities. The RBWR cores achieve their TRU multi-recycling
capability under the constraint that the void reactivity coefficient must be negative
by introducing the parfait core concept. This chapter reviews details of the specific
design and core characteristics of the RBWR.
Keywords Break-even • Burner • BWR • Multi-recycle • TRU • Void reactivity
coefficient
14.1 Introduction
Nuclear-generated electrical power is one irreplaceable candidate energy source
that responds to the needs for energy security and for reduction of greenhouse-gas
emissions. However, there has also been growing concern that significant amounts
T. Hino (*) • M. Ohtsuka • R. Takeda • J. Miwa
Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Research Laboratory, 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi-shi
Ibaraki-ken 319-1292, Japan
e-mail: tetsushi.hino.kd@hitachi.com
K. Moriya
Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd., 3-1-1, Saiwai-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki-ken 317-0073, Japan
© The Author(s) 2015
K. Nakajima (ed.), Nuclear Back-end and Transmutation Technology for Waste
Disposal, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55111-9_14
141
Application of the Resource-Renewable
Boiling Water Reactor for TRU Management
and Long-Term Energy Supply
Tetsushi Hino, Masaya Ohtsuka, Renzo Takeda, Junichi Miwa,
and Kumiaki Moriya
Abstract The RBWR (resource-renewable boiling water reactor) is an innovative
BWR that has a capability to breed and burn trans-uranium elements (TRUs) using
a multi-recycling process. The RBWR can be used as a long-term energy supply,
and it reduces the negative environmental impact that TRUs cause as they are
otherwise long-lived radioactive wastes. Various design concepts of the RBWR
core have been proposed. The RBWR-AC is a break-even reactor and the RBWRTB and RBWR-TB2 are TRU burners. The RBWR-TB is designed to burn TRUs
from the RBWR-TB itself and to burn almost all the TRUs by repeating their
recycling. The RBWR-TB is assumed to be applied for a nuclear power phase-out
scenario. The RBWR-TB2 is intended to burn TRUs from LWR spent fuels. The
RBWR-TB2 is assumed to be applied for reducing the amount of TRUs to be
managed in storage facilities. The RBWR cores achieve their TRU multi-recycling
capability under the constraint that the void reactivity coefficient must be negative
by introducing the parfait core concept. This chapter reviews details of the specific
design and core characteristics of the RBWR.
Keywords Break-even • Burner • BWR • Multi-recycle • TRU • Void reactivity
coefficient
14.1 Introduction
Nuclear-generated electrical power is one irreplaceable candidate energy source
that responds to the needs for energy security and for reduction of greenhouse-gas
emissions. However, there has also been growing concern that significant amounts
T. Hino (*) • M. Ohtsuka • R. Takeda • J. Miwa
Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Research Laboratory, 7-1-1, Omika-cho, Hitachi-shi
Ibaraki-ken 319-1292, Japan
e-mail: tetsushi.hino.kd@hitachi.com
K. Moriya
Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd., 3-1-1, Saiwai-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki-ken 317-0073, Japan
© The Author(s) 2015
K. Nakajima (ed.), Nuclear Back-end and Transmutation Technology for Waste
Disposal, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55111-9_14
141