Target fuels for plutonium and minor actinide transmutation in pressurized water reactors J. Washington a , J. King a,⇑ , Z. Shayer b a Nuclear Science and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401, USA b Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401, USA highlights  We evaluate transmutation fuels for plutonium and minor actinide destruction in LWRs.  We model a modified AP1000 fuel assembly in SCALE6.1.  We evaluate spectral shift absorber coatings to improve transmutation performance. graphical abstract article info Article history: Received 7 May 2016 Received in revised form 23 November 2016 Accepted 28 November 2016 abstract The average nuclear power plant produces twenty metric tons of used nuclear fuel per year, containing approximately 95 wt% uranium, 1 wt% plutonium, and 4 wt% fission products and transuranic elements. Fast reactors are a preferred option for the transmutation of plutonium and minor actinides; however, an optimistic deployment time of at least 20 years indicates a need for a nearer-term solution. This study considers a method for plutonium and minor actinide transmutation in existing light water reactors and evaluates a variety of transmutation fuels to provide a common basis for comparison and to deter- mine if any single target fuel provides superior transmutation properties. A model developed using the NEWT module in the SCALE 6.1 code package provided performance data for the burnup of the target fuel rods in the present study. The target fuels (MOX, PuO 2 , Pu 3 Si 2 , PuN, PuUZrH, PuZrH, PuZrHTh, and PuZrO 2 ) are evaluated over a 1400 Effective Full Power Days (EFPD) interval to ensure each assembly remained critical over the entire burnup period. The MOX (5 wt% PuO 2 ), Pu 0.31 ZrH 1.6 Th 1.08 , and PuZrO 2 MgO (8 wt % Pu) fuels result in the highest rate of plutonium transmutation with the lowest rate of curium-244 pro- duction. This study selected eleven different burnable absorbers (B 4 C, CdO, Dy 2 O 3 , Er 2 O 3 , Eu 2 O 3 , Gd 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , In 2 O 3 , Lu 2 O 3 , Sm 2 O 3 , and TaC) for evaluation as spectral shift absorber coatings on the outside of the fuel pellets to determine if an absorber coating can improve the transmutation properties of the tar- get fuels. The PuZrO 2 MgO (8 wt% Pu) target fuel with a coating of Lu 2 O 3 resulted in the highest rate of plutonium transmutation with the greatest reduction in curium-244 production. Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The average nuclear power plant produces twenty metric tons of used nuclear fuel per year, containing approximately 95 wt% uranium, 1 wt% plutonium, and 4 wt% fission products and transuranic elements (Bruno and Ewing, 2006). The transuranic http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2016.11.033 0029-5493/Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jwashing@gmail.com (J. Washington), kingjc@mines.edu (J. King), zshayer@mines.edu (Z. Shayer). Nuclear Engineering and Design 313 (2017) 53–72 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nuclear Engineering and Design journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nucengdes