Investigation of energy and fuel production in Pacer fusion reactor

In this study, fissile fuel breeding and energy production in PACER fusion reactor using either UF4 or ThF4 fuel in molten salt zone for various burning efficiencies of fusion fuel were investigated. The composition of these heavy metal salts changed from %2 moles to %8 moles while the flibe was taken as main constituent of the molten salt. In this reactor substantial amount of fissile fuel, sufficient tritium for fusion reactions, high energy production and low radiation damage in SS-304 steel were found. In molten salt zone, tritium breeding ratio was obtained greater than 1.05 for all investigated molten salt compositions having a heavy metal content range of 2 % - 8% mole. Furthermore, depending on the heavy metal composition used in molten salt and burning efficiencies of fusion fuel, fissile fuels ( U or Pu) were produced for use in external fission reactor. For the burning efficiencies of fusion fuel of % 100, ^'Pu production rates were obtained as 752 kg/year and 2060 kg/year for the molten salt with % 2 and % 8 UF4, respectively whereas U production rates were computed as 762 kg/year ve 2103 kg/year for the molten salt with % 2 and % 8 UF4, respectively. Generally, the mixtures with ThF4 show better performance than the mixture with UF4 in terms of more energy production and significant fissile fuel breeding. In addition due to reactions of high energetic fusion neutrons in the molten salt region, displacement per atom (dpa) and helium gas production decreased during the operation period of 30 years.In this operation period dpa was found lower than 1 dpa whereas helium production was calculated as <2 appm. These calculated values are fairly lower than radiation damage limits. Science code : 708 Key words : Fusion, Fission, Molten salt, Radiation damage, UF4, TI1F4