title: A study on artificial rare earth (RE2O3) based neutron absorber.
abstract: A new concept of a neutron absorption material (i.e., an artificial rare earth compound) was introduced for criticality control in a spent fuel storage system. In particular, spent nuclear fuels were considered as a potential source of rare earth elements because the nuclear fission of uranium produces a full range of nuclides. It was also found that an artificial rare earth compound (RE2O3) as a High-Level Waste (HLW) was naturally extracted from pyroprocessing technology developed for recovering uranium and transuranic elements (TRU) from spent fuels. In this study, various characteristics (e.g., activity, neutron absorption cross-section) were analyzed for validating the application possibility of this waste compound as a neutron absorption material. As a result, the artificial rare earth compound had a higher neutron absorption probability in the entire energy range, and it can be used for maintaining sub-criticality for more than 40 years on the basis of the neutron absorption capability of Boral™. Therefore, this approach is expected to vastly improve the efficiency of radioactive waste management by simultaneously keeping HLW and spent nuclear fuel in a restricted space.
authors.affiliation: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1045 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jkkim1@hanyang.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kyung Kim
keywords: Artificial rare earth compound; Criticality control; Neutron absorber; Pyroprocessing technology; Spent fuel storage system