Neutronic Analysis of Heavy Water Application in HPLWR Emergency Core Cooling System

Abstract

Since 2002 a generation IV nuclear energy system development project has been initiated to enhance the future role of nuclear energy systems. Challenging technology goals for generation IV nuclear reactor systems were defined in 4 areas: sustainability, economics, safety and reliability and proliferation resistance. Light water reactors at supercritical pressure, currently under design, are the new generation of nuclear reactors. The high-performance light water reactor (HPLWR) is the European version of the supercritical-pressure water cooled reactor (SCWR). The aim of the present study is to conduct a reliability analysis of heavy water emergency core cooling system (ECCS) (instead of light water ECCS) in HPLWRs during LOCA (loss of coolant accident) through neutronics calculations and applied feedback.. Reliability analysis (neutronic calculations) is performed using WIMS and CITATION codes. Changes in neutronic parameters, such as neutron cross-sections, effective multiplication factor and power peaking factor during LOCA, are discussed by injecting different concentrations of the heavy water coolant by ECCS.