Rapid Diagnosis Method for Transplutonium Isotopes Production in High Flux Reactor

Transplutonium isotopes are scarce and need to be produced by irradiation in high flux reactors, but their production is inefficient and optimization studies are needed. This paper analyzes the physics nature of transplutonium isotopes production by taking Cf-252, Cm-244, Cm-242 and Pu-238 as examples. Traditional methods based on the Monte Carlo burnup calculation are faced with the shortcomings of large amounts of calculation and are unable to analyze the individual energy intervals in more detail, thus cannot support the refined evaluation, screening and optimization of the irradiation schemes. After grasping the physics nature and simplifying the complexity of the production process, we proposed a rapid diagnosis method for evaluating the radiation schemes based on the concept of “Single Energy Interval Value (SEIV)” and “Energy Spectrum Total Value (ESTV)”. The rapid diagnosis method can not only avoid the tedious burnup calculation but also help to provide direction for optimization. The optimal irradiation schemes for producing Cf-252, Cm-244, Cm-242 and Pu-238 are determined based on the rapid diagnosis method. The optimal irradiation schemes can greatly improve production efficiency. Compared with the initial scheme, the optimal scheme improves the production efficiency of Pu-238 by 7.41 times, 11.98 times for Cm-242, 65.20 times for Cm-244 and 15.08 times for Cf-252, respectively. The work in this paper realizes the refined analysis of transplutonium isotopes production and provides a theoretical basis for improving production efficiency.