The Almr System’s Missions for Transmuting Waste into Energy

The Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) Actinide Recycle System is being developed in the United States for application early in the 21st century. The ALMR is a major part of this system and has missions beginning with near-term (10 years), medium term (15-20 years), and long-term (beyond 20 years) horizons. These missions use the same reactor design with modifications only to the reactor core details and constituents. The expected near-term mission is disposal of plutonium from dismantled weapons. The medium-term mission is the utilization of LWR spent fuel actinides (transuranics) as startup fissile material for significant commercialization and the long-term mission is the extension of economic uranium resources through the 21st century. This paper summarizes the basic reactor design, including its passive safety features, discusses its missions and the important elements supporting its missions, including the metal fuel cycle, the conversion of weapons material to ALMR fuel and the LWR spent fuel processing. It also reports the status of the prelicensing activities and the economic projections for this reactor design. INTRODUCTION The U.S. National Energy Strategy includes four key goals for nuclear policy: maintain safety and design standards, reduce economic risk, reduce regulatory risk, and establish an effective high-level nuclear waste program. The denaturing/consumption of plutonium (Pu) from dismantled weapons has also become an important goal. T h e toppriority long term nuclear program in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) Actinide Recycle System which offers the promise of fulfilling all five of these goals. This very flexible ALMR Actinide Recycle System with passive safety features and an innovative pyrometallurgical fiel cycle has the ability to fulfill multiple missions including: (1) the conversion of excess Pu to produce power while destroying or denaturing the Pu (2) utilizing the tremendous energy potential associated with spent LWR fuel, (3) providing long term energy security, and (4) achieving a significant reduction in the heat load and time constant associated with processed waste. The ALMR is a DOE sponsored fast reactor design based on the Power Reactor, Innovative Small Module (PRISM) concept originated by GE. The ALMR plant design and development program, led by GE, is a national program involving wide participation by US industry (Westinghouse, Bechtel, Bums & Roe, Raytheon Engineers and Constructors, FosterWheeler, and Babcock & Wilcox) as well as national laboratories, universities, and international organizations. The ALMR combines a high degree of passive safety characteristics with a high level of modularity and factory fabrication to achieve attractive economics. It utilizes the metal fuel cycle being developed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) which inherently recycles actinides to the reactor in the reference breakcvdbrccdcr and burner designs. Kcy