Optimization study of Ultra-long Cycle Fast Reactor core concept

Tak, Taewoo; Lee, Deokjung; Kim, T.K.

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2014.06.030

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In the case of the UCFR, its overall layout is more similar to a conventional SFR in the sense that its height is not bigger than its radius. The reference proposed core is the UCFR‐1000, which is a 2600MW t /1000MW e that consists of 70‐cm height igniter at the bottom and then a 170‐cm height blanket; 2 (upper and lower) 50‐cm axial reflectors cover the core, making its overall dimensions 2.4‐m height and 5.9 m in diameter. In the beginning of operation, the power density peak is in the starter zone closer to the center of the core, as expected; as the time passes through and fissile fuel is bred in the blanket, the fission zone moves in this area, first in the central area of the core and then radially out.…”

Section: Types Of Breed/burn Reactor Coresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The breed and burn nuclear reactor: A chronological, conceptual, and technological review

Lopez-Solis

François

2017

Int J Energy Res

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Summary Currently about 11% of the world's energy is produced in nuclear power plants; this implies the processing of uranium in order to enrich it to be suitable for “burning” in a nuclear reactor. Besides other environmental and monetary costs involved in the whole nuclear fuel cycle, the enrichment process has the disadvantage of producing depleted uranium as a sub‐product that has no wide use and is essentially stockpiled. One strategy to deal with this issue is to design a nuclear reactor that can run mostly on depleted uranium by breeding its own fissile fuel from it. Even though this concept could sound innovative or new, the truth is that it has been in the thought of the nuclear engineers since the 50s. In the present paper, the breed & burn (B&B) reactor concept is reviewed, as well as its origins, evolution up to present, and its main technical features. The objectives of this review are as follows: (1) to summarize the history of the development of B&B reactors, (2) to compare different B&B concepts based on a systematic approach under selected technical features, and (3) to bring out current trends and future directions on this technology. It is expected that this review will help the nuclear engineering community in general, and newcomer researchers in the field, to get an overview about the B&B reactors and how to direct a research in this direction.

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Section: Types Of Breed/burn Reactor Coresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The breed and burn nuclear reactor: A chronological, conceptual, and technological review

Lopez-Solis

François

2017

Int J Energy Res

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“…An advanced SFR with a power rate of 100 MWe (AFR-100) was developed, targeting a small electrical grid with a long operation time without refueling [10]. UCFR-100, which is a small size SFR with a power level of 260 MW, is combined with the UCFR-1000 concept and the SMR concept [14]. UCFR-100, which is a small size SFR with a power level of 260 MW, is combined with the UCFR-1000 concept and the SMR concept [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the SMR concept provides flexibility in design, siting, and the fuel cycle option, and it can be transported from the prelicensed factories to the remote plant sites [11][12][13]. UCFR-100, which is a small size SFR with a power level of 260 MW, is combined with the UCFR-1000 concept and the SMR concept [14]. However, this model is hard to transport to the plant site due to 4.3 m in its diameter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design study of long-life small modular sodium-cooled fast reactor

Park

Tak

Kim

et al. 2016

Int. J. Energy Res.

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Summary This paper presents a new design for a small modular sodium‐cooled fast reactor core with an optimized lifetime and reactivity swing through the analysis of various breed‐and‐burn strategies and its neutronic analyses in terms of active core movements, isotopic mass balance, kinetic parameters, and inherent safety. The new core design aims at a power level of 260 MW with a long lifetime of 30 years without refueling and a reactivity swing smaller than 1000 pcm. Starting from five initial candidate cores with various breed‐and‐burn strategies, an optimum core was selected from a combination of the two candidates that shows a proper breeding behavior with the optimized uranium enrichment in the low‐enriched uranium region and the optimized size of the blanket region. The depletion analysis of the new core provides various reactor design parameters such as the core multiplication factor, breeding ratio, heavy metal mass change, power distribution, and summary of neutron balance. In addition, the perturbation analysis provides the reactor kinetic parameters and reactivity feedback coefficients for the inherent safety analysis of the core. The integral reactivity parameters of the quasi‐static reactivity balance analysis demonstrate that the new core is inherently safe in cases of unprotected loss of flow, unprotected loss of heat sink, and unprotected transient over power. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…The result shows the radial peaking factor at the center decreases at middle of cycle (MOC), and it was confirmed that the power flattening was achieved . An optimization of UCFR was performed from a thermal hydraulic feedback analysis, and subsequently, a thorium loaded optimized UCFR‐1000 was presented that has an inner fuel region whose radius is a half of the whole fuel region, in contrast to that previous UCFR‐1000 with an inner fuel region of only 1/4 the radius of the whole fuel region . Furthermore, LEU zoning was also performed to confirm the feasibility of flattening the radial power distribution for beginning of cycle (BOC) and end of cycle (EOC) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power flattening study of ultra-long cycle fast reactor using thorium fuel

Tak

Zheng

Lee

et al. 2016

Int. J. Energy Res.

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SUMMARYThis paper presents a design study of power shape flattening for an optimized ultra-long cycle fast reactor with a power rate of 1000 MWe in order to mitigate the power peaking issue and improve the safety with a lower maximum neutron flux and reactivity swing. There are variations in the core designs by loading thorium fuel or zoning fuels in the blanket region and the bottom driver region of ultra-long cycle fast reactor with a power rate of 1000 MWe. While it has lower breeding performance in a fast breeder reactor, thorium fuel is one of the promising fuel options for future reactors because of its abundance and its safety characteristics. It has been confirmed that the thorium fuels, when loaded into the center region of a reactor core, lower the power peaking factor from 1.64 to 1.25 after 20 years and achieves a more flattened radial power distribution. This consequently reduces the maximum neutron flux and the speed of the active core moving from 3.0 cm/ year to 2.5 cm/year on the average over the 60-year reactor operation. It has been successfully demonstrated that the three-zone core is the most optimized core, has the most flattened radial power shape, and is without any compromise in the nature of long cycle core, from the neutronics point of view, in terms of average discharge burnup and breeding ratio.

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Optimization study of Ultra-long Cycle Fast Reactor core concept

Cited by 12 publications

References 12 publications

The breed and burn nuclear reactor: A chronological, conceptual, and technological review

The breed and burn nuclear reactor: A chronological, conceptual, and technological review

Design study of long-life small modular sodium-cooled fast reactor

Power flattening study of ultra-long cycle fast reactor using thorium fuel

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