Design of a fuel element for a lead-cooled fast reactor

Sobolev, V.; Malambu, E.; Abderrahim, Hamid Aı̈t

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2008.12.027

Cited by 27 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Each fuel assembly consists of 91 pins, which are composed of uranium–plutonium MOX fuel pellets covered by stainless steel cladding. The isotope abundances used for Uranium and Plutonium are listed in Table 1 25 . The LLFPs assembly is comprised of 91 pins, each of which contains one LLFP element; the number of pins containing each LLFP element is balanced to optimize their transmutation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of MAs and LLFPs with a lead-cooled fast reactor

Sun

Han

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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The management of nuclear wastes has long been a problem that hinders the sustainable and clean utilization of nuclear energy since the advent of nuclear power. These nuclear wastes include minor actinides (MAs: 237Np, 241Am, 243Am, 244Cm and 245Cm) and long-lived fission products (LLFPs: 79Se, 93Zr, 99Tc, 107Pd, 129I and 135Cs), and yet are hard to be handled. In this work, we propose a scheme that can transmute almost all the MAs and LLFPs with a lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR). In this scheme, the MAs and the LLFPs are loaded to the fuel assembly and the blanket assembly for transmutation, respectively. In order to study the effect of MAs loading on the operation of the core, the neutron flux distribution, spectra, and the keff are further compared with and without MAs loading. Then the LLFPs composition is optimized and the support ratio is obtained to be 1.22 for 237Np, 1.63 for 241Am, 1.27 for 243Am, 1.32 for 79Se, 1.53 for 99Tc, 1.02 for 107Pd, and 1.12 for 129I, respectively, indicating that a self-sustained transmutation can be achieved. Accordingly, the transmutation rate of these nuclides was 13.07%/y for 237Np, 15.18%/y for 241Am, 13.34%/y for 243Am, 0.58%/y for 79Se, 0.92%/y for 99Tc, 1.17%/y for 107Pd, 0.56%/y for 129I. Our results show that a lead-cooled fast reactor can be potentially used to manage nuclear wastes with high levels of long-lived radioactivity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmutation of MAs and LLFPs with a lead-cooled fast reactor

Sun

Han

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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“…Fuel performance codes (FPCs) can be utilized to provide essential guidance on the behaviors of fuel and cladding materials. The fuel performance analysis of ALFRED was carried out using the extended TRANSURANUS code, and a modified version of the fuel performance code FEMAXI-SCK-1 was adapted for ELSY [51,52]. Figure 2 illustrates the long-term conditions for fuel pins of ALFRED and ELSY.…”

Section: Long-term Steady Operationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cladding Failure Modelling for Lead-Based Fast Reactors: A Review and Prospects

Wang,

Yun

2023

Metals

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Lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) are considered one of the most promising technologies to meet the requirements introduced for advanced nuclear systems. LFRs have higher neutron doses, higher temperatures, higher burnup and an extremely corrosive environment. The failure studies of claddings play a vital role in improving the safety criteria of nuclear reactors and promoting research on advanced nuclear materials. This paper presented a comprehensive review of the extreme environment in LFRs based on the fuel performance analyses and transient analyses of reference LFRs. It provided a clear image of cladding failure, focusing on the underlying mechanisms, such as creep, rupture, fatigue, swelling, corrosion, etc., which are resulted from the motions of defects, the development of microcracks and accumulation of fission products to some extent. Some fundamental parameters and behavior models of Ferritic/Martensitic (F/M) steels and Austenitic stainless (AuS) steels were summarized in this paper. A guideline for cladding failure modelling was also provided to bridge the gap between fundamental material research and realistic demands for the application of LFRs.

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“…According to the engineering requirements for the selection and optimization of fuel for small lead-based reactors, this paper gives the main design parameters of the 60 MWt lead-cooled fast reactor (Table 1), referring to the EU-funded LEADER (Leadcooled European advanced demonstration reactor) [26] and the Belgian closed hexagonal fuel assemblies [27]. The core is made of 37 fuel assemblies and 54 reflector assemblies, each of which is a hexagonal fuel assembly (control rod guide tubes are reserved in the middle).…”

Section: Core Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on Fuel Selection for a Long-Life Small Lead-Based Reactor

et al. 2022

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The choice of an appropriate fuel can effectively prolong the refueling cycle of a reactor core. The Th-U cycle and U-Pu cycle are commonly used fuel breeding cycles. Oxide fuels, nitride fuels, and metal fuels are the primary candidate fuels for lead-based reactors. For fuel selection, a core model of a 60 MWt reactor was established. The results show that the breeding performance of the breeding fuel Th-232 is better than that of U-238, and the driving performance of the driving fuel Pu-239 is better than that of U-235. Therefore, PuO2-ThO2, PuN-ThN, and Pu-Th-Zr fuels may have good performance. By comparing the reactivity loss of three types of fuel, it was found that the reactivity loss of PuN-ThN fuel is the smallest. Hence, using PuN-ThN fuel as a core fuel can result in a longer refueling cycle. On this basis, PuN-ThN fuel was used in the preliminary design of the 120 MWt core physical model. It can be seen that when PuN-ThN fuel is used as the core fuel, a smaller reactivity swing (1408 pcm), smaller power peak factor, and super long refueling cycle (more than 30 years) can be obtained.

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Design of a fuel element for a lead-cooled fast reactor

Cited by 27 publications

References 17 publications

Transmutation of MAs and LLFPs with a lead-cooled fast reactor

Transmutation of MAs and LLFPs with a lead-cooled fast reactor

Cladding Failure Modelling for Lead-Based Fast Reactors: A Review and Prospects

Study on Fuel Selection for a Long-Life Small Lead-Based Reactor

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