The potential use of ²⁴¹Am as proliferation resistant burnable poison

This paper discusses the use of ¹⁴¹Am as proliferation resistant burnable poison for light water reactors. Homogeneous addition of small (less than 1 %) amounts of ²⁴¹Am to the conventional LWR fuel results in significant increase in ²³⁸Pu/Pu ratio in the discharged fuel improving its proliferation resistance. Moreover, ²⁴¹Am, admixed to the fuel, acts as burnable absorber allowing for substantial reduction in conventional reactivity control means without notable fuel cycle length penalty. This is possible due to favourable characteristics of ²⁴¹Am transmutation chain. The fuel cycle length penalty of introducing ²⁴¹Am into the core is evaluated and discussed, as well as the impact of He production in the fuel pins and degradation of reactivity feedback coefficients. Proliferation resistance and reactivity control features related to the use of ²⁴¹Am are compared to those of using ²³⁷Np, which has also been suggested as an additive to the conventional fuel in order to improve its proliferation resistance. It was found that ²⁴¹Am admixture is more favourable than ²³⁷Np admixture because of the smaller fuel cycle length penalty and higher burnable poison savings.