Neutronic analysis of thorium MOX fuel blocks with different driver fuels in advanced block-type HTRs

Attom, Areej Mutwakkil; Wang, Jincheng; Yan, Changqi; Ding, Ming

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2019.01.049

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The packing fraction of the TRISO is ≤0.5. Detailed geometric and material parameters of the fuel blocks can be found in our previous work …”

Section: Descriptions Of Fuel Blocks and Calculation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these fuels are in the oxide form. The percentages of the different isotopes contained in WU, RPu, and WPu are described in another work …”

Section: Descriptions Of Fuel Blocks and Calculation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the interest in thorium is also driven mainly by the goals of reducing plutonium production and long‐term radioactivity after the year 2000. Recently, thorium fuel has also been investigated in advanced molten salt‐cooled high temperature reactors (AHTRs), which have the merits of technologies developed in other reactors, including the HTRs and MSRs . The higher temperature heat delivered and lower fuel temperature, in addition to efficient resource utilization and inherent safety, characterize this type of reactor …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous thorium fuel blocks with four drivers in advanced high temperature reactors

et al. 2020

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Thorium is an attractive potential fuel owing to its abundance and unique thermal, neutronic, and chemical properties. One way to utilize thorium in block-type advanced high temperature reactors (AHTRs) is to homogenously mix the driver fuel (eg, U-233) with thorium in every fuel kernel of the tristructural-isotropic particles in a fuel block, which is the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) concept. Application of the seed and blanket (S&B) concept, that is, driver fuel in the seed region of a fuel block and thorium in the blanket region, is also another method to utilize thorium. To investigate the differences in the utilization of thorium using the MOX and S&B concepts in AHTRs, their multiplication factors (k ∞ ), discharge burnups, conversion ratios, and reactivity temperature coefficients are compared. The investigated drivers include U-233 (U3), weapons-grade uranium (WU), weapons-grade plutonium (WPu), and reactor-grade plutonium (RPu). The results demonstrate that the MOX block with plutonium drivers has a higher discharge burnup in comparison with the S&B block. When the heavy metal mass is 6 kg and the initial mass of the fissile materials is 0.65 kg per block, the MOX block achieves 27% higher discharge burnup than the S&B block with the RPu driver. In contrast, the S&B block achieves higher discharge burnup in the case of uranium drivers (U3 and WU). The MOX block achieves a higher conversion ratio for all the drivers. Furthermore, the MOX block achieves a stronger negative moderator temperature coefficient of reactivity than the S&B block for all the driver fuels.

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“…The packing fraction of the TRISO is ≤0.5. Detailed geometric and material parameters of the fuel blocks can be found in our previous work …”

Section: Descriptions Of Fuel Blocks and Calculation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these fuels are in the oxide form. The percentages of the different isotopes contained in WU, RPu, and WPu are described in another work …”

Section: Descriptions Of Fuel Blocks and Calculation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous thorium fuel blocks with four drivers in advanced high temperature reactors

et al. 2020

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“…18 Furthermore, HTGRs may be a better choice than the other potential reactors for using thorium-based fuels because the use of TRISO particles retains the fission product and resists irradiation very well, thus allowing for a very high fuel burnup. 19,20 Unlike block-type reactors, one of the major challenges in incorporating thorium in pebble-bed reactors (PBR Figure 1) is the difficulty in implementing the S&B concept, because the pebbles are randomly packed in the cylindrical cavity of the reactor core. As a result, the most practical option is to add the driver fuel with thorium into a TRISO particle known as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative analysis of the neutronic performance of thorium mixed with uranium or plutonium in a high‐temperature pebble‐bed reactor

et al. 2021

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“…This design has been used in the Russian Vodo‐Vodyanoi Energetichesky Reaktor (Water‐Water Energetic Reactor) Thorium (VVERT) reactor design, which posed a problem of using two different fuel management schemes for the core. Today, several other scientific studies and reports have revealed the potential of thorium dioxide as an alternative fuel resource, 5,8‐10 making interest in thorium‐based fuel cycle to remain strong due to its reported reduction in plutonium production, large abundance, proliferation resistant spent nuclear fuel, longer discharge burn‐up, high fuel melting temperature and conductivity, lower expansion coefficient and high thermal stability 11,12 . The conclusion was that the use of ThO 2 fuel similar to UO 2 fuel cycle in a homogeneous or heterogeneous thermal reactor core is not realistic and economically viable, making its use in a mixed oxide form most probable 13,14 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Burn‐up calculation of the neutronic and safety parameters of thorium‐uranium mixed oxide fuel cycle in a Westinghouse small modular reactor

et al. 2020

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Summary Thorium fuel is presently a globally known future nuclear fuel alternative, having good neutronic, physical and chemical properties in addition to its spent nuclear fuel characteristic proliferation resistance. This research focused on the neutronic and safety parameters of thorium‐uranium mixed oxide fuel cycle, utilising three fissile enrichment zones, a departure from the conventional single enrichment. The aim was to determine the range of three fissile zones adequate for thorium‐uranium fuel cycle; investigating the performance efficiency of the fuel neutronic and inherent safety parameters in response to temperature differentials, which determines the viability of the fuel and core composition. Use was made of the MCNPX 2.7 code integrated with the CINDER90 fuel depletion code for steady‐state and burn‐up calculations. The keff, moderator temperature coefficient (MTC) and fuel temperature coefficient (FTC) of reactivity are affected by the range of fissile enrichment and fuel temperature which decreased with their respective increases. The MTC for all the moderator temperatures was within 0 to −40 pcm/K design value for UO2 fuel. Similarly, the FTC was within −3.5 to −1 pcm/K design value for all the fuel temperatures except after 2000 days, where a positive reactivity feedback was introduced. At ~86 MWd/kgHM single discharge burn‐up, the result shows that ~90% of the initial fissile load was utilised for energy production at the normal reactor operating temperature (600 K) with a slight reduction at higher fuel temperature. The total fissile inventory ratio (FIR), 233U/kg‐232Th and 239Pu/kg‐238U inventory ratios were significantly large and increased with burn‐up. It is remarkable that the FIR and the 233U/kg‐232Th inventory ratio did not reach conversion equilibrium until exit burn‐up. The large percentage fuel utilisation supports the advantage of fissile enrichment zoning in a thermal nuclear reactor core, making the chosen novel three fissile enrichment zones for thorium‐uranium fuel cycle reliable.

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Neutronic analysis of thorium MOX fuel blocks with different driver fuels in advanced block-type HTRs

Cited by 13 publications

References 21 publications

Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous thorium fuel blocks with four drivers in advanced high temperature reactors

Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous thorium fuel blocks with four drivers in advanced high temperature reactors

A comparative analysis of the neutronic performance of thorium mixed with uranium or plutonium in a high‐temperature pebble‐bed reactor

Burn‐up calculation of the neutronic and safety parameters of thorium‐uranium mixed oxide fuel cycle in a Westinghouse small modular reactor

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