Core designing of the newly proposed (U+Gd)O2 FAs in the VVERs core and comparison with current UO2FAs

Faghihi, F.; Roosta, Fatemeh; Ghaemi, S.; Bagheri, Somayeh

doi:10.1016/j.aej.2019.03.010

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To understand the effects of the MA distribution on the MA burnup results, uranium is replaced with MAs in a different number of fuel elements in one fuel assembly: 312 (all), 39, 19, 10, 5, 4. It needs to be taken into account that one fuel element contains only 1.5 kg of fuel in the form of a heavy metal oxide mixture (Faghihi et al 2019).…”

Section: Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Kazansky

Karpovich

2022

NUCET

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the possibilities and conditions of combustion in a pressurized water reactor of its own accumulated minor actinides (MA). The simplest computational model is used: an infinitely extended medium with the distribution and composition of all materials of the fuel assembly of the reactor core, similar to VVER-1200, with uranium dioxide having an initial 235U enrichment of 4.95%. The burnup model is presented in the form of iterations, each of which simulates a fuel campaign lasting 4 years without refueling. At the start of the cycle, special fuel rods are loaded with minor actinides extracted from the reprocessed SNF of the VVER-1200 reactor. After the end of the fuel campaign, all the MAs are removed from the SNF and used in a new iteration. As a result of calculations, it was found that the MA mass in the cycle after 3–7 iterations (depending on the number of fuel elements allocated for the placement and accumulation of MAs) tends to an equilibrium state (regardless of the MAs added every 4 years). In other words, the fuel rods allocated for loading MAs play the role of a kind of furnace, into which, in each iteration, MAs from the previous iteration accumulated in the given reactor are loaded. After several iterations, the burned MA mass converted into fission products is compared with the incoming one. The inclusion of MAs in this way into the fuel cycle converts at least 86% of MAs into fission products without affecting the power generation of the nuclear power plant. It is important that MAs are temporarily unloaded from the reactor after the next iteration in order to remove fission products and to add a new portion of MAs. After stopping the reactor operation, about 16% of the total amount of MAs generated for the entire history of the reactor’s life is discharged into the storage facility. The initial fuel composition in the fuel rods allocated for loading MAs differs from the others only in the amount of MAs and the mass of 238U. The simplified computational model used in this work (without annual overloads of the reactor) influenced the burnup depth and, naturally, the duration of operation, i.e., the k∞ value becomes less than 1 after 1056 days instead of the actual 1460 days with annual fuel overloads. This affected the average fuel composition and, consequently, the neutron spectrum, and could affect the main result of the work, i.e., the number of burned-out MAs in different iterations. Additional calculations, taking into account the annual overloads of the reactor, showed that the change in the spectral composition had little effect on the amount of MAs at the end of the fuel campaign (within 2%). It turned out that the replacement of 238U with minor actinides in fuel rods, the number of which is less than 10, leads to a loss of reactivity. When the number of fuel rods for loading MAs is more than 10, the reactivity increases, giving hope for burning up MAs accumulated in several reactors.

show abstract

Section: Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Kazansky

Karpovich

2022

NUCET

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Neutronic analysis of new generation TVS-2M fuel assemblies in VVER-1000 reactor type

Ganjaroodi,

Zarifi,

Khameh

2024

Radiation Physics and Chemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Burnup Characteristics of Transuranic Fuel With Burnable Poison in Dual Cooled Annular Rod of VVER-1000

Ahmed

Sahadath

Islam

2023

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The potentiality of TRU fuel as dual cooled annular fuel rods with different types of burnable absorbers- IBAs, BPRs, coated absorbers, etc. in the hexagonal assembly of VVER-1000 was studied. Annular 7, Annular 8, and Annular 9 models were taken for various combinations of TRU fuel and burnable absorbers. Planned models were simulated in Monte Carlo particle simulation code OpenMC and lattice physics deterministic code Dragon Version5. Burnup-dependent multiplication factors were simulated for 3000 EFPDs. Reactivity was calculated by taking 3% neutron leakage. The study showed that both the multiplication factor and reactivity for TRU fuel are significantly higher than conventional UO2 fuel. LRM (Linear Reactivity Model) was applied to find out cycle burnup, discharge cycle burnup, and cycle length. High cycle burnup, discharge burnup, and cycle length have been observed for TRU fuel compared to UO2 fuel. Burnup-dependent atomic concentration graphs showed that slight burn of Np-237, constant concentration for Cm-244, a slight increase for Am-242, and linear burnout of burnable absorbers- Gd-155, Gd-155, and Er-167. A lower concentration of Xe-135 has been observed for TRU fuel. Pin power distribution and energy-dependent neutron flux for different models and BA combinations are also included in this study.

show abstract

Core designing of the newly proposed (U+Gd)O2 FAs in the VVERs core and comparison with current UO2FAs

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Neutronic analysis of new generation TVS-2M fuel assemblies in VVER-1000 reactor type

Burnup Characteristics of Transuranic Fuel With Burnable Poison in Dual Cooled Annular Rod of VVER-1000

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Core designing of the newly proposed (U+Gd)O2 FAs in the VVERs core and comparison with current UO2FAs

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

﻿Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

﻿Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Neutronic analysis of new generation TVS-2M fuel assemblies in VVER-1000 reactor type

Burnup Characteristics of Transuranic Fuel With Burnable Poison in Dual Cooled Annular Rod of VVER-1000

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor

Minor actinides transmutation in pressurized water reactors. 1. Multiple recycling of minor actinides on the example of one VVER reactor