Thorium as an alternative fuel for SCWRs

Csom, Gy.; Reiss, T.; Fehér, S.; Czifrus, Sz.

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2011.11.007

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Moreover, in the sodium-cooled fast reactor the FIR value is the closest to 1.0 (red line (in web version) in Fig. 25) (Csom et al, 2012).…”

Section: Comparison Of the Reactorsmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Burnup calculation of the Generation IV reactors

György

Czifrus

2015

Progress in Nuclear Energy

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“…Moreover, in the sodium-cooled fast reactor the FIR value is the closest to 1.0 (red line (in web version) in Fig. 25) (Csom et al, 2012).…”

Section: Comparison Of the Reactorsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For this, the fissile inventory ratio (FIR) was used, which gives information about the potential fissile content with respect to the initial values (Csom et al, 2012). The definition of this parameter is described by Eq.…”

Section: Comparison Of the Reactorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Burnup calculation of the Generation IV reactors

György

Czifrus

2015

Progress in Nuclear Energy

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“…The higher conversion ratio (CR) and fissile inventory ratio (FIR) of the duplex fuel (Fig. 11a) lead to a longer core life than for UO 2 fuel (Csom et al, 2012, Tsige-Tamirat, 2011. The higher CR and FIR of duplex fuel compared to UO 2 arise from the higher depletion rate of fertile material (Fig.…”

Section: Core Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Small modular reactor core design for civil marine propulsion using micro-heterogeneous duplex fuel. Part I: Assembly-level analysis

Alam

Kumar

Almutairi

et al. 2019

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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Civil marine reactors face a unique set of design challenges. These include requirements for a small core size and long core lifetime, a 20% cap on fissile loading, and limitations on using soluble neutron absorbers. In this reactor physics study, we seek to design a core that meets these requirements over a 15 effective full-power-years (EFPY) life at 333 MWth using homogeneously mixed all-UO 2 and micro-heterogeneous ThO 2 -UO 2 duplex fuels. In a companion (Part I) paper, we found assembly designs using 15% and 18% 235 U for UO 2 and duplex fuels, respectively, loaded into 13×13 pin arrays. High thickness (150 μm) ZrB 2 integral fuel burnable absorber (IFBA) pins and boron carbide (B 4 C) control rods are used for reactivity control. Taking advantage of self-shielding effects, these designs maintain low and stable assembly reactivity with little burnup penalty.In this paper (Part II), whole-core design analyses are performed for small modular reactor (SMR) to determine whether the core remains critical for at least 15 EFPY with a reactivity swing of less than 4000 pcm, subject to appropriate constraints. The main challenge is to keep the radial form factor below its limit (1.50). Burnable poison radial-zoning is examined in the quest for a suitable arrangement to control power peaking. Optimized assemblies are loaded into a 3D reactor model in PANTHER. The PANTHER results confirm that the fissile loadings of both fuels are well-designed for the target lifetime: at the end of the ∼15-year cycle, the cores are on the border of criticality. The duplex fuel core can achieve ∼4% longer core life, has a ∼3% lower initial reactivity and ∼30% lower reactivity swing over life than the final UO 2 core design. The duplex core is therefore the more successful design, giving a core life of ∼16 years and a reactivity swing of less than 2500 pcm, while satisfying all the neutronic safety parameters. In particular, one of the major objectives of this study is to offer/explore a thorium-based candidate alternative fuel platform for the proposed marine core. It is proven by literature reviews that the ability of the duplex fuel was never explored in the context of a single-batch, LEU, SBF, long-life SMR core. In this regard, the motivation of this paper is to understand the underlying physics of the duplex fuel and 'open the option' of designing the functional cores with both the duplex and UO 2 fuel cores.

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“…In [6] a SCWR thorium-based hexagonal fuel assembly was researched. The fuel cycle proposed used thorium fuel with 233 U as fissile material.…”

Section: Introduction mentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupled Analysis of Thorium-based Fuels in the High-Performance Light Water Reactor Fuel Assembly

et al. 2021

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One of the six selected concepts to be part of Generation IV nuclear reactors is the Supercritical Light Water Cooled Reactor. The High-Performance Light Water Reactor (HPLWR) is the European version and it is a very promising design. In recent years, interest in the study of thorium-based fuel cycles has been renewed and its possibilities for current LWRs have been evaluated. The use of thoriumbased fuels will be fundamental in the future sustainability of nuclear energy, since in addition to its abundance in nature, thorium has an important group of advantages. In this paper, performance of thorium-based fuels in the typical fuel assembly of the HPLWR reactor is evaluated, using a computational model based on CFD and Monte Carlo codes for the neutronic/thermal-hydraulic coupled analysis. The volumetric power density profiles, coolant temperature profiles, fuel temperature profiles and others are compared with those obtained for standard UO 2 fuel. When the thorium-based fuels are used, the obtained infinite multiplication coefficients are smaller than the value obtained when UO 2 is used, since the 232 Th isotope has a lower contribution to the multiplicative properties of the medium than 238 U. As a result, a difference of approximately 12 000 pcm was observed. The results verified that the HPLWR is a thermal reactor with a hard spectrum. There are no notable changes in the neutron spectrum if the mass fraction of thorium is slightly varied. With coupled analysis, the potential benefits of the utilization of thorium-based fuels were verified. Moreover, a significant temperature decrease by 136 K on the center line of the fuel elements was observed. When the mass fraction of thorium increases in the oxides mixture, the weighted average temperature on the fuel elements decreases.

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Thorium as an alternative fuel for SCWRs

Cited by 19 publications

References 27 publications

Burnup calculation of the Generation IV reactors

Burnup calculation of the Generation IV reactors

Small modular reactor core design for civil marine propulsion using micro-heterogeneous duplex fuel. Part I: Assembly-level analysis

Coupled Analysis of Thorium-based Fuels in the High-Performance Light Water Reactor Fuel Assembly

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