| Abstract: | The proliferation resistance enhancement of utilizing re-enriched reprocessed uranium due to accumulation of ℗ø℗đ¹́œU and ℗ø℗đ¹́ıPu was investigated. This study is expected to prove the theory that recycling the bulk of uranium in the used nuclear fuel can be an effective role in nonproliferation, specifically for prevention of uranium and plutonium use in weapons by the non-weapons states. The reprocessed uranium has higher concentrations of ℗ø℗đ¹́œU in relation to natural uranium fuel. As the recycling process repeats it increases the number of other isotopes, specifically ℗ø℗đ¹́ıPu. A higher concentration of this isotope can render the fuel mute to produce weapons. Additionally, besides decreasing material attractiveness by denaturing plutonium, this recycling process discourages the production of highly enriched uranium. This is due to the difficulty of only enriching ℗ø℗đ¹́æU without enriching ℗ø℗đ¹́þU and ℗ø℗đ¹́œU in the fuel. This study was conducted using simulations of reactor fuel (re-enriched reprocessed uranium) irradiation by employing a Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport code, MCNP6.2. The study showed that utilizing re-enriched reprocessed uranium can decrease the proliferation risk in a closed fuel cycle operation scenario. The mathematical uranium enrichment process employed in this study was based on Matched Abundance Cascade Ratio (MARC) model, which uses a multicomponent mixture enrichment. The multicomponent separation is applied since there is an increased amount of ℗ø℗đ¹́þU, as well as other isotopes of uranium. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/197904 |
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