Thermal Performance of Deep-Burn Fusion-Fission Hybrid Waste in a Repository

The Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion Fission Energy (LIFE) Engine [1] combines a neutron-rich but energy-poor inertial fusion system with an energy-rich but neutron-poor subcritical fission blanket. Because approximately 80% of the LIFE Engine energy is produced from fission, the requirements for laser efficiency and fusion target performance are relaxed, compared to a pure-fusion system, and hence a LIFE Engine prototype can be based on target performance in the first few years of operation of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Similarly, because of the copious fusion neutrons, the fission blanket can be run in a subcritical, driven, mode, without the need for control rods or other sophisticated reactivity control systems. Further, because the fission blanket is inherently subcritical, fission fuels that can be used in LIFE Engine designs include thorium, depleted uranium, natural uranium, spent light water reactor fuel, highly enriched uranium, and plutonium. Neither enrichment nor reprocessing is required for the LIFE Engine fuel cycle, and burnups to 99% fraction of initial metal atoms (FIMA) being fissioned are envisioned. This paper discusses initial calculations of the thermal behavior of spent LIFE fuel following completion of operation in the LIFE Engine [2]. The three timemore » periods of interest for thermal calculations are during interim storage (probably at the LIFE Engine site), during the preclosure operational period of a geologic repository, and after closure of the repository.« less