A Comparative Study of Th-U²³³ and Th-Pu Molten-Salt Reactor (MSR) with 2-region core

Abstract

Sustainable closed fuel cycle and inherent safety are one of the key aspects of Generation IV reactor design. Hence Molten salt reactor (MSR) is chosen as one of the candidates of Generation IV reactor concepts. FUJI-U2 or MSR-2R is a 2-region core MSR design that was proposed as a possible simplification of FUJI-U3 (3-region core). Taking into consideration that uranium−233 doesn’t exist naturally, FUJI-U2 utilize both plutonium and uranium−233 as a fissile material. To understand the characteristics further, a comparative study of 2-region core MSR with Th-U233 and Th-Pu as fuel has been carried out. Nuclear analysis code SRAC2006 with the nuclear data library of JENDL4.0 was used, and CITATION was employed to validate the core. The design parameters set for each region are fuel composition, core radius, and fuel fraction. The simulation burn up calculation is set to 2000 days in total, with 21 step each for 100 days cycle. Neutron multiplication factor, fuel elemental, burn up calculation, conversion ratio, and neutron flux in each core will be discussed.

Model Comparison of Passive Compact-Molten Salt Reactor Neutronic Design Using MCNP6 and Serpent-2

“…Recent researches on thermal breeder MSR have been performed in several designs, such as ORNL-designed MSBR [5][6][7][8][9], Japanese MSR-FUJI [10][11][12], and the more recent Chinese Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) [13][14][15][16], to name a few. Many of the aforementioned researches were focused on the fuel cycle and transition into the thorium fuel cycle.…”