Core design options for high conversion BWRs operating in Th–233U fuel cycle

Shaposhnik, Y.; Shwageraus, Eugene; Elias, E.

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2013.04.018

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In order to achieve high breeding ratio, fertile and fissile nuclides should be spatially separated to reduce their competition for neutron absorption and thus maximizing capture rate in fertile nuclides. An optimal configuration and composition of the fissile and fertile fuel zones with high breeding ratio were studied by Shaposhnik et al (2013). This design consisted of a tightly packed hexagonal fuel lattice operating at high core average void fraction (60% versus about 40% in a typical BWR) in order to harden the neutron spectrum and improve breeding.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the following, the shutdown margins issue is considered by extending the Th-RBWR core proposed in Shaposhnik et al (2013) to address three design questions: -Can the design satisfy shutdown margin using the Y-shaped control rod (CR) configuration (as in the RBWR-AC design [Feng et al, 2011])?, -What control material and control rods configuration assure the shutdown margin? -How the reactivity control and shutdown margin requirements affect the breeding performance and achievable power of the core?…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shutdown margin for high conversion BWRs operating in Th-233U fuel cycle

Shaposhnik

Shwageraus

Elias

2014

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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Several reactivity control system design options are explored in order to satisfy shutdown margin (SDM) requirements in a high conversion BWRs operating in Th-233 U fuel cycle (Th-RBWR). The studied has an axially heterogeneous fuel assembly structure with a single fissile zone "sandwiched" between two fertile blanket zones. The utilization of an originally suggested RBWR Y-shape control rod in Th-RBWR is shown to be insufficient for maintaining adequate SDM to balance the high negative reactivity feedbacks, while maintaining fuel breeding potential, core power rating, and minimum Critical Power Ratio (CPR). Instead, an alternative assembly design, also relying on heterogeneous fuel zoning, is proposed for achieving fissile inventory ratio (FIR) above unity, adequate SDM and meeting minimum CPR limit at thermal core output matching the ABWR power. 2The new concept was modeled as a single 3-dimensional fuel assembly having reflective radial boundaries, using the BGCore system, which consists of the MCNP code coupled with fuel depletion and thermo-hydraulic feedback modules.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shutdown margin for high conversion BWRs operating in Th-233U fuel cycle

Shaposhnik

Shwageraus

Elias

2014

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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“…The question of a water-cooled reactor with self-sustaining U3/Th fuel has been explored in a number of studies, including the light water breeder reactor (Freeman et al, 1989), various light water moderated parametric reactor physics studies (Permana et al, 2007(Permana et al, , 2008Shwageraus et al, 2008;Yun et al, 2010;Lindley et al, 2014), reduced moderation boiling water reactors Shaposhnik et al, 2013;Lindley et al, 2014), and heavy water cooled pressurized water reactors (Takaki and Mardiansah, 2012), among many other studies. It is outside the scope of this paper to provide a comprehensive literature review or to develop such a reactor system.…”

Section: Analysis Of Water-cooled Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper, two water-cooled heterogeneous 232 Th/ 233 U seed and blanket assembly configurations are analyzed: (1) an example D 2 O-cooled tight lattice pitch PWR (PWR-D 2 O) with some conceptual similarities to systems proposed by Hibi et al (2001) and Takaki and Mardiansah (2012) and (2) an example reduced moderation boiling water reactor-thorium (RBWR-Th) similar to that proposed by Ganda et al (2012) and Shaposhnik et al (2013). This system is similar to the Hitachi RBWR concept (Takeda et al, 2007;Downar et al, 2012).…”

Section: Analysis Of Water-cooled Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable thorium nuclear fuel cycles: A comparison of intermediate and fast neutron spectrum systems

Brown

Powers

Feng

et al. 2015

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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h i g h l i g h t s• Comparison of intermediate and fast spectrum thorium-fueled reactors.• Variety of reactor technology options enables self-sustaining thorium fuel cycles. • Fuel cycle analyses indicate similar performance for fast and intermediate systems.• Reproduction factor plays a significant role in breeding and burn-up performance. a b s t r a c t This paper presents analyses of possible reactor representations of a nuclear fuel cycle with continuous recycling of thorium and produced uranium (mostly U-233) with thorium-only feed. The analysis was performed in the context of a U.S. Department of Energy effort to develop a compendium of informative nuclear fuel cycle performance data. The objective of this paper is to determine whether intermediate spectrum systems, having a majority of fission events occurring with incident neutron energies between 1 eV and 10 5 eV, perform as well as fast spectrum systems in this fuel cycle. The intermediate spectrum options analyzed include tight lattice heavy or light water-cooled reactors, continuously refueled molten salt reactors, and a sodium-cooled reactor with hydride fuel. All options were modeled in reactor physics codes to calculate their lattice physics, spectrum characteristics, and fuel compositions over time. Based on these results, detailed metrics were calculated to compare the fuel cycle performance. These metrics include waste management and resource utilization, and are binned to accommodate uncertainties. The performance of the intermediate systems for this self-sustaining thorium fuel cycle was similar to a representative fast spectrum system. However, the number of fission neutrons emitted per neutron absorbed limits performance in intermediate spectrum systems.

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“…A number of designs and analyses of high-conversion water reactors (HCWR) have been performed by several research groups in order to establish a sustainable fuel-cycle, which could be the alternative to fast reactor fuel cycle options [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The design targets of such reactors are to obtain high Pu conversion ratio while retaining the negative void reactivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the Performance of D<sub>2</sub>O-Cooled High-Conversion Reactors for Fuel Cycle Calculations

Hiruta

Youinou

2013

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SUMMARYThis report presents FY13 activities for the analysis of D 2 O cooled tight-pitch High-Conversion PWRs (HCPWRs) with U-Pu and Th-U fueled cores aiming at break-even or near breeder conditions while retaining the negative void reactivity. The analyses are carried out from several aspects which could not be covered in FY12 activities. SCALE 6.1 code system is utilized, and a series of simple 3D fuel pincell models are developed in order to perform Monte Carlo based criticality and burnup calculations.The performance of U-Pu fueled cores with axial and internal blankets is analyzed in terms of their impact on the relative fissile Pu mass balance, initial Pu enrichment, and void coefficient. In FY12, Pu conversion performances of D 2 O-cooled HCPWRs fueled with MOX were evaluated with small sized axial/internal DU blankets (~4cm of axial length) in order to ensure the negative void reactivity, which evidently limits the conversion performance of HCPWRs. In this fiscal year report, the axial sizes of DU blankets are extended up to 30 cm in order to evaluate the amount of DU necessary to reach break-even and/or breeding conditions. Several attempts are made in order to attain the milestone of the HCPWR designs (i.e., break-even condition and negative void reactivity) by modeling of HCPWRs under different conditions such as boiling of D 2 O coolant, MOX with different 235 U enrichment, and different target burnups.A similar set of analyses are performed for Th-U fueled cores. Several promising characteristics of 233 U over other fissile like 239 Pu and 235 U, most notably its higher fission neutrons per absorption, , in thermal and epithermal ranges combined with lower in the fast range than 239 Pu allows Th-U cores to be taller than MOX ones. Such an advantage results in 4% higher relative fissile mass balance than that of UPu fueled cores while retaining the negative void reactivity until the target burnup of 51 GWd/t. Several other distinctions between U-Pu and Th-U fueled cores are identified by evaluating the sensitivity coefficients of k eff , mass balance, and void coefficient.The effect of advanced iron alloy cladding (i.e., FeCrAl) on the performance of Pu conversion in MOX fueled cores is studied instead of using standard stainless-steel cladding. Variations in clad thickness and coolant-to-fuel volume ratio are also exercised. The use of FeCrAl instead of SS as a cladding alloy reduces the required Pu enrichment and improves the Pu conversion rate primarily due to the absence of nickel in the cladding alloy that results in the reduction of the neutron absorption. Also the difference in void coefficients between SS and FeCrAl alloys is nearly 500 pcm over the entire burnup range.The report also shows sensitivity and uncertainty analyses in order to characterize D 2 O cooled HCPWRs from different aspects. The uncertainties of integral parameters (k eff and void coefficient) for selected reactor cores are evaluated at different burnup points in order to find similarities and trends respect to D 2 O...

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Core design options for high conversion BWRs operating in Th–233U fuel cycle

Cited by 10 publications

References 7 publications

Shutdown margin for high conversion BWRs operating in Th-233U fuel cycle

Shutdown margin for high conversion BWRs operating in Th-233U fuel cycle

Sustainable thorium nuclear fuel cycles: A comparison of intermediate and fast neutron spectrum systems

Investigation of the Performance of D<sub>2</sub>O-Cooled High-Conversion Reactors for Fuel Cycle Calculations

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