scholarly journals Neutronic analysis of thorium nitride and thorium-plutonium nitride fuel for 200 MWth long-life pressurized water reactor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurlina ◽  
Zaki Su’ud
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Van Khanh Hoang ◽  
Vinh Thanh Tran ◽  
Dinh Hung Cao ◽  
Viet Ha Pham Nhu

This work presents the neutronic analysis of fuel design for a long-life core in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). In order to achieve a high burnup, a high enrichment U-235 is traditionally considered without special constraints against proliferation. To counter the excess reactivity, Erbium was selected as a burnable poison due to its good depletion performance. Calculations based on a standard fuel model were carried out for the PWR type core using SRAC code system. A parametric study was performed to quantify the neutronically achievable burnup at a number of enrichment levels and for a numerous geometries covering a wide design space of lattice pitch. The fuel temperature and coolant temperature reactivity coefficients as well as the small and large void reactivity coefficients are also investigated. It was found that it is possible to achieve sufficient criticality up to 100 GWd/tHM burnup without compromising the safety parameters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-15
Author(s):  
Duwi Hariyanto ◽  
Nining Yuningsih ◽  
Sidik Permana

The requirement for electricity increases with the growth of the human population. The existing power plants have not been able to fulfill all electricity requirements, especially in remote areas. The small long-life pressurized water reactor (PWR) is one of the solutions and innovations in nuclear technology that can produce electrical energy for a long time without refueling. This study aimed to analyze the neutronic of small long-life PWR that using Thorium-Uranium dioxide ((Th-U)O2) fuels with enriched Uranium-235 (U-235) and the addition of Gadolinium (Gd2O3) and Protactinium-231 (Pa-231) as the burnable poisons. The SRAC Code with the JENDL-4.0 nuclear data library had been used for the calculation method. In this study, the geometry of the two-dimensional (R-Z) reactor core with different fuel volume fraction was analyzed. Moreover, variations of the Uranium-235, Gadolinium, and Protactinium-231 fractions in the fuels were carried out. The result in this study was a PWR 420 MWt design using 60% Uranium dioxide fuel with enriched Uranium-235 of 10%-11%-12% and the addition of 0,0125% Gadolinium and 1,0% Protactinium-231 as the burnable poisons that could operate for thirteen years without refueling. The small long-life PWR design could produce a power density of 85,1 watts/cc with the reactivity for less than 4,6% dk/k.


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