A design study on Pb-208 cooled compact CANDLE burning reactor for future nuclear energy supply

Okawa, Tsuyoshi; Sekimoto, Hiroshi

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2010.06.002

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It is due to the neutron capture cross‐section is the smallest. Hence, the criticality and neutron economy of the reactor would increase 9,18‐21 . We can obtain this isotope with the laser photochemical technique that is being developed by Russian researchers.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

et al. 2021

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Summary Natural uranium is utilized in a small percentage by the Light Water Reactor (LWR) and also by the once‐through Fast Breeder Reactor. One of the reactor designs that can increase the natural uranium utilization is the MCANDLE (Modified Constant Axial shape of Neutron flux, nuclides densities, and power shape During Life of Energy production) reactor. The scheme divides the core into several discrete regions. The modified CANDLE reactor will only need natural uranium as fuel input after reaching quasi‐equilibrium conditions. In this study, We used a core with certain Plutonium (Pu) composition in each region as a startup core. Initially, the Pu content in each region imitates that of the reactor core at the quasi‐equilibrium state. We calculated the neutronics of the initial core by the SRAC that stands for Standard Reactor Analysis Code System and used JENDL 4.0 as a nuclear data library. Plutonium (Pu) from LWR spent fuel was utilized as the initial reactor fuel. However, excess reactivity is more than 10%. It is because there are no other fission products. Therefore, we replace other fission products with a reduction in the volume of fuel cells. The volume reduction was adjusted to the level of burnup in each region at the quasi‐equilibrium condition. Hence, there are differences in the volume reduction ratio for each fuel cell. The method can reduce excess reactivity to 5%. The reduction of the volume of fuel cells can also reduce the amount of plutonium as the initial fuel for the reactor core. Also, the spent fuel burnup is 48% FIMA. The design could increase the utilization of natural uranium without an enrichment process.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

et al. 2021

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“…It is because, among all the Pb isotopes, the 208 Pb isotope has the lowest neutron capture cross-section. Furthermore, it can also harden the neutron spectrum [18,23,31]. Another advantage of this coolant material is that it has a higher level of safety than natural lead, especially since the margin between melting and boiling points is larger [13].…”

Section: Reactor Materials and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutronic performance of ²⁰⁸Pb-Bi eutectic-cooled fast reactor with uranium nitride fuel (enriched ¹⁵N)

Widiawati,

Suud

2024

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Fast reactors (FRs) require more uranium enrichment than LWRs and fuel reprocessing. The solution proposed to address these issues is to use the modified CANDLE burnup scheme on the reactor core. The use of uranium nitride (UN) as fuel was proposed because the UN fuel has several advantages, such as high melting point, high heavy metal density, and large thermal conductivity. However, using UN as a fuel can produce the radioactive isotope 14C via the reaction 14N (n, p)14C. Therefore, in this study, a neutronic analysis was performed in a modified CANDLE fast reactor employing UN and UN (enriched 15N) as fuel using SRAC. The modified CANDLE fast reactor fuelled with UN (99% 15N) has a higher keff than the UN-fuelled reactor with similar parameters. Similarly, the atomic density of fissile nuclides and power density are higher because the 15N isotope has a smaller neutron capture cross-section than the 14N isotope.

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CANDLE Reactor Concept

Sekimoto

2021

Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy

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A design study on Pb-208 cooled compact CANDLE burning reactor for future nuclear energy supply

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

Neutronic performance of ²⁰⁸Pb-Bi eutectic-cooled fast reactor with uranium nitride fuel (enriched ¹⁵N)

CANDLE Reactor Concept

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A design study on Pb-208 cooled compact CANDLE burning reactor for future nuclear energy supply

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

Neutronic performance of 208Pb-Bi eutectic-cooled fast reactor with uranium nitride fuel (enriched 15N)

CANDLE Reactor Concept

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Neutronic performance of ²⁰⁸Pb-Bi eutectic-cooled fast reactor with uranium nitride fuel (enriched ¹⁵N)