scholarly journals Neutronical aspects of a decay heat measurement: the PRESTO experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 04005
Author(s):  
Francesco Muratori ◽  
Frédéric Nguyen ◽  
Christian Gonnier ◽  
Christophe Le Niliot ◽  
Romain Eschbach

Decay heat is the thermal power released by radioactive decays of unstable isotopes after the nuclear reactor shutdown, and delayed fission reactions. It constitutes a key parameter for the nuclear reactor safety and the nuclear fuel cycle; for this reason, design codes have to be qualified by comparison with experimental measurements. The CEA’s package DARWIN2.3 has been qualified for the calculation of PWR decay heat with two integral measurements: the MERCI experience and the CLAB laboratory’s experiments; performed respectively on the following cooling time intervals: 40 min – 40 days and 12 years – 25 years. A lack of validation in the first hour of cooling time requires to consider large margins on the calculated decay heat value. As a result, delays in core unloading, intervention of human operators and safety systems dimensioning may occur. The PRESTO experiment, under conception at CEA, deals with a decay heat measurement between 1 and 40 minutes of cooling time for a PWR fuel sample irradiated in the Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR). A previous thermal study showed that measurements could be sensitive to the decay heat 1 minute after the beginning of the cooling time. Now, a more precise estimation of power sources was performed with the Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI. In this framework, four different device configurations were considered. Our results show that the irradiation power is not enough elevated in configurations where a tungsten shield is present.

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Timothée Kooyman ◽  
Laurent Buiron ◽  
Gerald Rimpault

In the heterogeneous minor actinides transmutation approach, the nuclei to be transmuted are loaded in dedicated targets often located at the core periphery, so that long-lived heavy nuclides are turned into shorter-lived fission products by fission. To compensate for low flux level at the core periphery, the minor actinides content in the targets is set relatively high (around 20 at.%), which has a negative impact on the reprocessing of the targets due to their important decay heat level. After a complete analysis of the main contributors to the heat load of the irradiated targets, it is shown here that the choice of the reprocessing order of the various feeds of americium from the fuel cycle depends on the actual limit for fuel reprocessing. If reprocessing of hot targets is possible, it is more interesting to reprocess first the americium feed with a high 243Am content in order to limit the total cooling time of the targets, while if reprocessing of targets is limited by their decay heat, it is more interesting to wait for an increase in the 241Am content before loading the americium in the core. An optimization of the reprocessing order appears to lead to a decrease of the total cooling time by 15 years compared to a situation where all the americium feeds are mixed together when two feeds from SFR are considered with a high reprocessing limit.


2016 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Ansarifar ◽  
M. H. Esteki ◽  
M. Zaidabadi

Author(s):  
Chi Wang ◽  
Xuebei Zhang ◽  
Jingchao Feng ◽  
Muhammad Shehzad Khan ◽  
Minyou Ye ◽  
...  

The simulation of 3D thermal-hydraulic problem for the pool type fast reactors, is one of the necessary and great importance. Most system codes can’t be used to simulate multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulics problems, whereas, the CFD method is suitable to deal with these type of simulation challenges. Based on the CFD method, a neutronics and thermohydraulic coupling code FLUENT/PK for nuclear reactor safety analysis by coupling the commercial CFD code FLUENT with the point kinetics model (PKM) and the pin thermal model (PTM) is developed by University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The coupled code is verified by comparing with a series of benchmarks on beam interruptions in a lead-bismuth-cooled and MOX-fuelled accelerator-driven system. The variations of transient power, fuel temperature and outlet coolant temperature all agree well with the benchmark results. The validation results show that the code can be used to simulate the transient accidents of critical and sub-critical lead/lead-bismuth cooled reactors. Then this coupling code is used to evaluate the safety performance of MYRRHA (Multi-purpose Hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications) at unprotected beam over-power (UBOP) accident, and M2LFR-1000 (Medium-size Modular Lead-cooled Fast Reactor) at the unprotected transient over-power (UTOP) and unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) accident. The transient power, the temperature of coolant and fuel and multi-dimensional flow phenomena in upper plenum and lower plenum are presented and discussed in this paper.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Moghrabi ◽  
David Raymond Novog

The Canadian pressure-tube super critical water-cooled reactor (PT-SCWR) is an advanced generation IV reactor concept which is considered as an evolution of the conventional Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor that includes both pressure tubes and a low temperature and pressure heavy water moderator. The Canadian PT-SCWR fuel assembly utilizes a plutonium and thorium fuel mixture with supercritical light water coolant flowing through the high-efficiency re-entrance channel (HERC). In this work, the impact of fuel depletion on the evolution of lattice physics phenomena was investigated starting from fresh fuel to burnup conditions (25 MW d kg−1 [HM]) through sensitivity and uncertainty analyses using the lattice physics modules in standardized computer analysis for licensing evaluation (SCALE). Given the evolution of key phenomena such as void reactivity in traditional CANDU reactors with burnup, this study focuses on the impact of fission products, 233U breeding, and minor actinides on fuel performance. The work shows that the most significant change in fuel properties with burnup is the depletion of fission isotopes of Pu and the buildup of high-neutron cross section fission products, resulting in a decrease in cell k∞ with burnup as expected. Other impacts such as the presence of protactinium and uranium-233 are also discussed. When the feedback coefficients are assessed in terms of reactivity, there is considerable variation as a function of fuel depletion; however, when assessed as Δk (without normalization to the reference reactivity which changes with burnup), the net changes are almost invariant with depletion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ihda Husnayani ◽  
Pande Made Udiyani

Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) is a 10 MWth pebble-bed High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor that is planned to be constructed by National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) in Puspiptek complex, Tangerang Selatan. RDE utilizes low enriched UO2 fuel coated by TRISO layers and loaded into the core by means of multipass loading scheme. Determination of radionuclide characteristics of RDE spent fuel; such as activity, thermal power, neutron and photon release rates; are very important because those characteristics are crucial to be used as a base for evaluating the safety of spent fuel handling system and storage tank. This study is aimed to investigate the radionuclide characteristics of RDE spent fuel at the end of cycle and during the first 5 years cooling time in spent fuel storage. The method used to investigate the radionuclide characteristics is burnup calculation using ORIGEN2.1 code. In performing the ORIGEN2.1 calculation, one pebble fuel was assumed to be irradiated in the core for 5 cycles and then decayed for 5 years. At the end of the fifth cycle, it is obtained that the total activity, thermal power, neutron production, and photon release rates from all radionuclides inside one spent fuel are approximately 105.68 curies, 0.41 watts, 2.65 x 103 neutrons/second, and 1.79 x 104 photons/second, respectively. The results for the radionuclides characteristics during the first 5 years cooling time in the spent fuel storage show that the radioactivity characteristics from all radionuclides are rapidly decreasing at the first year and then slowly decreasing at the second until the fifth year of cooling time. The results obtained in this study can provide data for safety evaluation of fuel handling and spent fuel storage, such as the calculation of sourceterm, radiation dose rate, and the determination of radiation shielding.Keywords: RDE, spent fuel, radionuclide activity, thermal power, neutron production, photon releaserates KARAKTERISTIK RADIONUKLIDA DI DALAM BAHAN BAKAR RDE. Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) adalah reaktor tipe Reaktor Temperatur Tinggi Berpendingin Gas dengan daya termal 10MW yang akan dibangun oleh BadanTenagaNuklirNasional (BATAN) di kawasanPuspiptek, Tangerang Selatan. RDE menggunakan bahan bakar UO2 yang dilapisi dengan lapisan TRISO dan dimasukkan ke dalam teras RDE menurut skema multipass (5 siklus). Penentuan karakteristik radionuklida di dalam bahan bakar RDE; seperti aktivitas, daya termal, laju produksi neutron dan pelepasan foton; adalah sangat penting karena informasi karakteristik ini diperlukan sebagai dasar untuk melakukan evaluasi keselamatan system penanganan dan penyimpanan bahan bakar bekas. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis karakteristik radionuklida bahanbakar RDE setelah 5 siklus dan pada 5 tahun pertama pendinginan ditempat penyimpanan bahan bakar bekas. Metode yang digunakan dalam menghitung karakteristik radionuklida adalah menggunakan program ORIGEN2.1. Satu bola bahan bakar RDE diasumsikan diiradiasi selama 5 siklus dan kemudian meluruh selama 5 tahun. Pada akhir siklus, diperoleh hasil aktivitas total, daya termal, laju produksi neutron dan pelepasan foton dari seluruh radionuklida di dalam satu bola bahan bakar RDE sebesar 105,68 curies, 0,41 watts, 2,65 x 103 neutron/detik, dan 1,79 x 104 foton/detik. Hasil untuk karakteristik radionuklida selama 5 tahun penyimpanan menunjukkan bahwa karakteristik radioktivitas radionuklida menurun dengan cepat pada tahun pertama dan kemudian menurun lebih lambat pada tahun kedua hingga tahun kelima. Hasil perhitungan karakteristik radionuklida dari penelitian ini dapat digunakan sebagai basis untuk analisis keselamatan penanganan dan penyimpanan bahan bakarbekas RDE.Kata kunci:RDE, bahan bakar bekas, aktivitas radionuklida, daya termal, produksi neutron, laju foton


Author(s):  
Premkumar Manoharan ◽  
Karthick K ◽  
Sowmya R

<p>As electricity demand escalated with supply, though there are lot of thermal power station, nuclear energy and other conventional power sources. Yet, there is exhaustion in the above assets and adding dangerous impacts to the atmospheric conditions.  The world searches for sustainable power source that it is normally accessible such as sun and wind. Apart from all the renewable energy resources, solar energy is readily harnessed for domestic application to meet demand. To increase the power conversion efficiency from the solar PV system it is better have a perfect DC to DC converters. The proposed outcome of this paper is to outline the DC to DC converter with MPPT algorithms to concentrate on extreme productivity at roof-top for solar PV application which decreases the cost of energy. In addition to that it also prevents panel miss matching at all environmental conditions for safer DC Voltage with flexible site design especially for domestic applications from the solar photovoltaic module. It is necessary to analyze the converters and MPPT algorithms under closed loop condition for the design and installation of solar PV system to the load or to the grid. This review summarizes few DC to DC converter topologies, maximum power point tracking algorithm and also paid attention on the advantages and disadvantages of these algorithms and topologies.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Sudadiyo

Nowadays, pumps are being widely used in the thermal power generation including nuclear power plants. Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) is a proposed nuclear reactor concept for the type of nuclear power plant in Indonesia. This RDE has thermal power 10 MWth, and uses a feedwater pump within its steam cycle. The performance of feedwater pump depends on size and geometry of impeller model, such as the number of blades and the blade angle. The purpose of this study is to perform a preliminary design on an impeller of feedwater pump for RDE and to simulate its performance characteristics. The Fortran code is used as an aid in data calculation in order to rapidly compute the blade shape of feedwater pump impeller, particularly for a RDE case. The calculations analyses is solved by utilizing empirical correlations, which are related to size and geometry of a pump impeller model, while performance characteristics analysis is done based on velocity triangle diagram. The effect of leakage, pass through the impeller due to the required clearances between the feedwater pump impeller and the volute channel, is also considered. Comparison between the feedwater pump of HTR-10 and of RDE shows similarity in the trend line of curve shape. These characteristics curves will be very useful for the values prediction of performance of a RDE feedwater pump. Preliminary design of feedwater pump provides the size and geometry of impeller blade model with 5-blades, inlet angle 14.5 degrees, exit angle 25 degrees, inside diameter 81.3 mm, exit diameter 275.2 mm, thickness 4.7 mm, and height 14.1 mm. In addition, the optimal values of performance characteristics were obtained when flow capacity was 4.8 kg/s, fluid head was 29.1 m, shaft mechanical power was 2.64 kW, and efficiency was 52 % at rotational speed 1750 rpm.Keywords: Blade, impeller, pump, RDEDESAIN AWAL IMPELER POMPA AIR UMPAN RDE. Saat ini, pompa digunakan secara luas dalam pembangkit tenaga termal termasuk pembangkit listrik tenaga nuklir. Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) merupakan konsep reaktor nuklir yang diusulkan untuk tipe PLTN di Indonesia. RDE ini memiliki daya termal 10 MWth, dan menggunakan pompa air umpan dalam siklus uapnya. Kinerja pompa air umpan bergantung pada ukuran dan geometri model impeller, seperti jumlah sudu dan sudut sudu. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk membuat rancangan awal impeller pompa air umpan untuk RDE dan untuk mensimulasikan karakteristik kinerjanya. Kode Fortran digunakan sebagai bantuan dalam penghitungan data untuk untuk mengkalkulasi secara cepat bentuk sudu impeller pompa air umpan, terutama pada kasus RDE. Analisis perhitungan dipecahkan menggunakan korelasi empiris yang terkait dengan ukuran dan geometri model impeller pompa, sedangkan analisis karakteristik kinerja dilakukan berdasarkan diagram segitiga kecepatan. Pengaruh bocoran, melalui impeler akibat celah yang diperlukan antara impeller pompa air umpan dan saluran volute, juga dipertimbangkan. Perbandingan antara pompa air umpan HTR-10 dan RDE menunjukkan kemiripan dalam garis tren bentuk kurva. Kurva karakteristik ini akan sangat berguna untuk perkiraan nilai kinerja pompa air umpan RDE. Desain awal pompa air umpan memberikan ukuran dan geometri model sudu impeller dengan 5-sudu, sudut masuk 14,5 derajat, sudut keluar 25 derajat, diameter dalam 81,3 mm, diameter luar 275,2 mm, ketebalan 4,7 mm, dan tinggi 14,1 mm. Selain itu, nilai optimal karakteristik kinerja diperoleh ketika kapasitas aliran 4,8 kg/s, head fluida 29,1 m, tenaga mekanik poros 2,64 kW, dan efisiensi 52 % pada kecepatan putaran 1750 rpm.Kata kunci: Sudu, impeler, pompa, RDE


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-411
Author(s):  
Jinho Song

Scientific issues that draw international attention from the public and experts during the last 10 years after the Fukushima accident are discussed. An assessment of current severe accident analysis methodology, impact on the views of nuclear reactor safety, dispute on the safety of fishery products, discharge of radioactive water to the ocean, status of decommissioning, and needs for long-term monitoring of the environment are discussed.


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