Accelerator breeder with uranium, thorium target

An accelerator breeder, that uses a low-enriched fuel as the target material, can produce substantial amounts of fissile material and electric power. A study of H/sub 2/O- and D/sub 2/O-cooled, UO/sub 2/, U, (depleted U), or thorium indicates that U-metal fuel produces a good fissile production rate and electrical power of about 60% higher than UO/sub 2/ fuel. Thorium fuel has the same order of magnitude as UO/sub 2/ fuel for fissile-fuel production, but the generating electric power is substantially lower than in a UO/sub 2/ reactor. Enriched UO/sub 2/ fuel increases the generating electric power but not the fissile-material production rate. The Na-cooled breeder target has many advantages over the H/sub 2/O-cooled breeder target.