Neutronic modeling of megawatt-class heat pipe reactors

Hui, Guo; Feng, Kuaiyuan; Gu, Haihua; Yao, Xiaoling; Liang, Bo

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108140

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The introduction of moderators is considered to be an ideal choice, and metal hydrides are the most popular moderator materials for HPRs at present. In our previous work, based on the OpenMC model of one-sixth of the MegaPower core (Guo et al, 2021), a moderated megawatt-class HPR core design has been proposed to increase the power density and reduce fuel loading, core volume, and weight (Feng et al, 2022). Other research has also evaluated the effectiveness of various moderator materials such as matrix graphite, yttrium hydride, and uranium-zirconium hydride (Li et al, 2022;Li et al, 2023;Wu et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiphysics analysis of a metal hydride moderated megawatt heat pipe reactor with burnable poisons

Feng,

Hu,

Wang

et al. 2024

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the development of nuclear energy, microreactors have received increasing interest among researchers in recent years. In this paper, a megawatt heat pipe reactor with metal hydride moderators and burnable poisons is proposed. The hydrogen stability of the reactor under accident conditions, including reactivity insertion accidents, loss of power conversion unit heat sink accidents, and heat pipe failure accidents are analyzed. In this work, Gd2O3 is introduced as a burnable poison in the form of mixing with the UO2 fuel. According to the results of the burnable poison design, the 0.1% mass fraction of Gd2O3 is selected as the burnable poison loaded in the core. Safety analysis indicates that the introduction of burnable poisons can be beneficial during the positive reactivity insertion accident as it can reduce the excessive reactivity at BOL, thus reducing power peak and preventing hydrogen dissociation in ZrH1.4 rods. However, during the loss of PCU heat sink accident, ZrH1.4 rods will dissociate regardless of the presence of burnable poisons, whereas YH1.7 rods show better hydrogen stability. Moreover, in the event of the heat pipe failure accident, ZrH1.4 rods are more susceptible to dissociation than YH1.7 rods. As a result, the YH1.7+BP core is a better choice compared with other designs proposed in this paper as it provides a relatively high temperature margin.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiphysics analysis of a metal hydride moderated megawatt heat pipe reactor with burnable poisons

Feng,

Hu,

Wang

et al. 2024

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…LANL (McClure et al, 2015) proposed a 5 MW th heat pipe cooled mobile nuclear reactor (Megapower), which can continuously operate for more than 12 years in the case of 19.75% enriched UO 2 fuel. Guo et al (2021) analyzed the neutronic characteristics of the Megapower. The results show that the influence of the cross-section library can be >750 pcm and the addition of the axial structure zone can lead to a >300 pcm reactivity increase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Th and U breeding in a heat pipe cooled traveling wave reactor

2023

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Heat pipe cooled traveling wave reactor (HPTWR) is a newly proposed heat pipe reactor. The HPTWR can achieve the low enrichment of loaded fuel, small reactivity swing, and long-term continuous operation for the power supply of decentralized electricity markets. Due to the excellent breeding capability of the HPTWR, the Th fuel is also added into the breeding fuel region of the reactor to achieve the Th-U fuel cycle in this work.Methods: The Monte Carlo code RMC is used to obtain the reactivity swing, propagation of axial power peak, burnup, and productions of bred fissile nuclides for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels.Results and Discussion: The results indicate that the HPTWR with 13.6% 235U enrichment of ignition fuel and 20% 235U enrichment of breeding fuel can continuously operate for 18.1 years without refueling when the mass fraction of 232Th in heavy metals of breeding fuel region is 33%. The propagation velocity of axial power peak and total burnup for the HPTWR with Th and U fuels is about 0.5525 cm/years and 24.72 GWd/THM during the 18.1 years operation respectively. The corresponding productions of bred 239Pu, 241Pu and 233U are about 212.99 kg of 239Pu, 0.19 kg of 241Pu and 81.58 kg of 233U at the end of cycle (EOC) respectively. The obtained results in this study demonstrate that the HPTWR can achieve the Th fuel breeding in the case of the low 235U enrichment loading (≤ 20%).

show abstract

“…This behavior is desirable for nuclear applications because the use of heat pipes prevents large loss of coolant or loss of forced circulations accidents. It is for this reason that there has been much research into the use of heat pipes in nuclear microreactors [4]- [8]. Additionally, commercial vendors are actively developing HPR microreactor designs; Westinghouse is currently developing its eVinci microreactor [9]- [11], whereas Oklo Power is developing its Aurora powerhouse [12], for which it has submitted a combined license application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%