LAUSR

Abstract To study the thermophysical and neutronic properties of thorium-plutonium fuel, a conceptual design of a hybrid facility consisting of a subcritical Th–Pu reactor core and a source of additional D-D neutrons that places on the axis of the core is proposed. The source of such neutrons is a column of high-temperature plasma held in a long magnetic trap for D-D fusionreactions. This article presents computer simulation results of generation of thermonuclear neutrons in the plasma, facility neutronic properties and the evolution of a fuel nuclide composition in the reactor core. Simulations were performed for an axis-symmetric radially profiled reactor core consisting of zones with various nuclear fuel composition. Such reactor core containing a continuously operating stationary D-D neutron source with a yield intensity of Y = 2 × 1016 neutrons per second can operate as a nuclear hybrid system at its effective coefficient of neutron multiplication 0.95–0.99. Options are proposed for optimizing plasma parameters to increase the neutron yield in order to compensate the effective multiplication factor decreasing and plant power in a long operating cycle (3000-day duration). The obtained simulation results demonstrate the possibility of organizing the stable operation of the proposed hybrid ‘fusion–fission’ facility.