Recycling plutonium in heavy-water power reactors☆

Abstract We consider the operation of a heavy-water reactor using as fuel 233U with equilibrium concentrations of 239 U 240 Pu and 241 Pu nuclei and small additions of 231U when the reactor is fed with natural and depleted uranium. Part of the irradiated fuel taken from the reactor is purified of fission fragments and returned to the reactor. The other, smaller, part, after extraction of the plutonium, is removed from the cycle and replaced by natural uranium.