Power density dynamics in a nuclear reactor with an extended in-core pulse-periodic neutron source based on a magnetic trap

Abstract

The article examines the features of the spatial kinetics of an innovative hybrid nuclear power facility with an extended neutron source based on a magnetic trap. The fusion-fission facility under study includes a reactor plant, the core of which consists of an assembly of thorium-plutonium fuel blocks of the HGTRU reactor of a unified design and a long magnetic trap that penetrates the near-axial region of the core. The engineering solution for the neutron plasma generator is based on an operating gas-dynamic trap based on a fusion neutron source (GDT-FNS) developed at the Novosibirsk G.I. Budker Nuclear Physics Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The GDT-FNS high-temperature plasma pinch is formed in pulse-periodic mode in the investigated hybrid facility configuration, and, at a certain pulse rate, one should expect the formation of a fission wave that diverges from the axial part of the system and propagates throughout the fuel block assembly in a time correlation with the fast D-D neutron pulse source. In these conditions, it is essential to study the fission wave propagation process and, accordingly, the power density distribution formation within the facility blanket. The paper presents the results of a study on the steady-state and space-time performances of neutron fluxes and the power density dynamics in the facility under investigation. The steady-state neutronic performance and the space-time fission wave propagation were simulated using the PRIZMA software package developed at FSUE RFNC-VNIITF.