The European Journal of Physics N (EPJ-N)
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Thermalhydraulics of advanced 37-element fuel bundle in crept pressure tubes
No full textA CANDU-6 reactor, which has 380 fuel channels of a pressure tube type, is suffering from aging or creep of the pressure tubes. Most of the aging effects for the CANDU primary heat transport system were originated from the horizontal crept pressure tubes. As the operating years of a CANDU reactor proceed, a pressure tube experiences high neutron irradiation damage under high temperature and pressure. The crept pressure tube can deteriorate the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) of a fuel channel and finally worsen the reactor operating performance and thermal margin. Recently, the modification of the central subchannel area with increasing inner pitch length of a standard 37-element fuel bundle was proposed and studied in terms of the dryout power enhancement for the uncrept pressure tube since a standard 37-element fuel bundle has a relatively small flow area and high flow resistance at the central region. This study introduced a subchannel analysis for the crept pressure tubes loaded with the inner pitch length modification of a standard 37-element fuel bundle. In addition, the subchannel characteristics were investigated according to the flow area change of the center subchannels for the crept pressure tubes. Also, it was discussed how much the crept pressure tubes affected the thermalhydraulic characteristics of the fuel channel as well as the dryout power for the modification of a standard 37-element fuel bundle
Reactor physics modelling of accident tolerant fuel for LWRs using ANSWERS codes
No full textThe majority of nuclear reactors operating in the world today and similarly the majority of near-term new build reactors will be LWRs. These currently accommodate traditional Zr clad UO2/PuO2 fuel designs which have an excellent performance record for normal operation. However, the events at Fukushima culminated in significant hydrogen production and hydrogen explosions, resulting from high temperature Zr/steam interaction following core uncovering for an extended period. These events have resulted in increased emphasis towards developing more accident tolerant fuels (ATFs)-clad systems, particularly for current and near-term build LWRs. R&D programmes are underway in the US and elsewhere to develop ATFs and the UK is engaging in these international programmes. Candidate advanced fuel materials include uranium nitride (UN) and uranium silicide (U3Si2). Candidate cladding materials include advanced stainless steel (FeCrAl) and silicon carbide. The UK has a long history in industrial fuel manufacture and fabrication for a wide range of reactor systems including LWRs. This is supported by a national infrastructure to perform experimental and theoretical R&D in fuel performance, fuel transient behaviour and reactor physics. In this paper, an analysis of the Integral Inherently Safe LWR design (I2S-LWR), a reactor concept developed by an international collaboration led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, within a US DOE Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) Integrated Research Project (IRP) is considered. The analysis is performed using the ANSWERS reactor physics code WIMS and the EDF Energy core simulator PANTHER by researchers at the University of Cambridge. The I2S-LWR is an advanced 2850 MWt integral PWR with inherent safety features. In order to enhance the safety features, the baseline fuel and cladding materials that were chosen for the I2S-LWR design are U3Si2 and advanced stainless steel respectively. In addition, the I2S-LWR design adopts an integral configuration and a fully passive decay heat removal system to provide indefinite cooling capability for a class of accidents. This paper presents the equilibrium cycle core design and reactor physics behaviour of the I2S-LWR with U3Si2 and the advanced steel cladding. The results were obtained using the traditional two-stage approach, in which homogenized macroscopic cross-section sets were generated by WIMS and applied in a full 3D core solution with PANTHER. The results obtained with WIMS/PANTHER were compared against the Monte Carlo Serpent code developed by VTT and previously reported results for the I2S-LWR. The results were found to be in a good agreement (e.g. <200 pcm in reactivity) among the compared codes, giving confidence that the WIMS/PANTHER reactor physics package can be reliably used in modelling advanced LWR systems
Structural integrity assessment and stress measurement of CHASNUPP-1 fuel assembly
No full textFuel assembly of the PWR nuclear power plant is a long and flexible structure. This study has been made in an attempt to find the structural integrity of the fuel assembly (FA) of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-1 (CHASNUPP-1) at room temperature in air. The non-linear contact and structural tensile analysis have been performed using ANSYS 13.0, in order to determine the fuel assembly (FA) elongation behaviour as well as the location and values of the stress intensity and stresses developed in axial direction under applied tensile load of 9800 N or 2 g being the fuel assembly handling or lifting load [Y. Zhang et al., Fuel assembly design report, SNERDI, China, 1994]. The finite element (FE) model comprises spacer grids, fuel rods, flexible contacts between the fuel rods and grid's supports system and guide thimbles with dash-pots and flow holes, in addition to the spot welds between spacer grids and guide thimbles, has been developed using Shell181, Conta174 and Targe170 elements. FA is a non-straight structure. The actual behavior of the geometry is non-linear due to its curvature or design tolerance. It has been observed that fuel assembly elongation values obtained through FE analysis and experiment [SNERDI Tech. Doc., Mechanical strength and calculation for fuel assembly, Technical Report, F3.2.1, China, 1994] under applied tensile load are comparable and show approximately linear behaviors. Therefore, it seems that the permanent elongation of fuel assembly may not occur at the specified load. Moreover, the values of stresses obtained at different locations of the fuel assembly are also comparable with the stress values of the experiment determined at the same locations through strain gauges. Since the results of both studies (analytical and experimental) are comparable, therefore, validation of the FE methodology is confirmed. The stress intensity of the FE model and maximum stresses developed along the guide thimbles in axial direction are less than the design stress limit of the materials used for the grid [ASTM, Standard specification for precipitation hardening nickel alloy (UNSN07718) plate, sheet, and strip for high temperature service, B 670-80, USA, 2013], fuel rod [ASTM, Standard specification for wrought zirconium alloy seamless tubes for nuclear reactor fuel cladding, B 811-02, USA, 2002] and the guide thimble [ASTM, Standard specification for seamless stainless steel mechanical tubing, A 511-04, USA, 2004]. Therefore, the structural integrity criterion of CHASNUPP-1 fuel assembly is fulfilled safely at the specified tensile load
Lessons learned from a review of international approaches to spent fuel management
No full textWorldwide, a variety of approaches to the management of spent fuel have been adopted. A review of approaches adopted internationally was undertaken to inform decision making on spent fuel management in UK. The review surveyed spent fuel storage and disposal practices, standards, trends and recent developments in 16 countries and carried out more detailed studies into the evolution of spent fuel storage and disposal strategies in four countries. The review highlighted that: (1) spent fuel management should be aligned to the national policy for final dispositioning of the fuel; (2) national spent fuel storage arrangements should deliver efficiency across all spent fuel management activities; (3) commercial and financial arrangements should ensure that spent fuel management decisions do not unnecessarily limit future fuel handling, packaging and disposal activities; (4) extended storage of spent fuel prior to packaging provides increased flexibility in the design of future packaging and disposal concepts. Storage of spent fuel over 100 years or more using existing technologies is technically feasible and operationally credible. Local factors such as existing infrastructure, approach to fuel cycle management, existing experience/capability and short-term cash flow considerations all influence technology selection. Both wet and dry storage systems continue to receive regulatory approval and are acceptable
Multiphysics simulation of fast transients with the FINIX fuel behaviour module
No full textFINIX is a recently developed fuel behaviour module that is designed to provide “simple but sufficient” descriptions of the most essential fuel behaviour phenomena in multiphysics simulations. In such simulations, it is possible to obtain significant improvement in the feedback to neutronics or thermal hydraulics modelling even with a relatively simple fuel performance model. In this work, FINIX is used as an internal fuel behaviour module both in reactor physics and in reactor dynamics codes to simulate coupled behaviour in fast transient scenarios. With the Monte Carlo reactor physics code Serpent we model a prompt transient in a VVER-1000 pin cell, and with the reactor dynamics code HEXTRAN, a control rod ejection accident in a VVER-440 reactor
Statistical model of global uranium resources and long-term availability
No full textMost recent studies on the long-term supply of uranium make simplistic assumptions on the available resources and their production costs. Some consider the whole uranium quantities in the Earth's crust and then estimate the production costs based on the ore grade only, disregarding the size of ore bodies and the mining techniques. Other studies consider the resources reported by countries for a given cost category, disregarding undiscovered or unreported quantities. In both cases, the resource estimations are sorted following a cost merit order. In this paper, we describe a methodology based on “geological environments”. It provides a more detailed resource estimation and it is more flexible regarding cost modelling. The global uranium resource estimation introduced in this paper results from the sum of independent resource estimations from different geological environments. A geological environment is defined by its own geographical boundaries, resource dispersion (average grade and size of ore bodies and their variance), and cost function. With this definition, uranium resources are considered within ore bodies. The deposit breakdown of resources is modelled using a bivariate statistical approach where size and grade are the two random variables. This makes resource estimates possible for individual projects. Adding up all geological environments provides a repartition of all Earth's crust resources in which ore bodies are sorted by size and grade. This subset-based estimation is convenient to model specific cost structures
Extraction of uranium from seawater: a few facts
No full textAlthough uranium concentration in seawater is only about 3 micrograms per liter, the quantity of uranium dissolved in the world's oceans is estimated to amount to 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium metal (tU). In contrast, the current conventional terrestrial resource is estimated to amount to about 17 million tU. However, for a number of reasons the extraction of significant amounts of uranium from seawater remains today more a dream than a reality. Firstly, pumping the seawater to extract this uranium would need more energy than what could be produced with the recuperated uranium. Then if trying to use existing industrial flow rates, as for example on a nuclear power plant, it appears that the annual possible quantity remains very low. In fact huge quantities of water must be treated. To produce the annual world uranium consumption (around 65,000 tU), it would need at least to extract all uranium of 2 × 1013 tonnes of seawater, the volume equivalent of the entire North Sea. In fact only the great ocean currents are providing without pumping these huge quantities, and the idea is to try to extract even very partially this uranium. For example Japan, which used before the Fukushima accident about 8,000 tU by year, sees about 5.2 million tU passing every year, in the ocean current Kuro Shio in which it lies. A lot of research works have been published on the studies of adsorbents immersed in these currents. Then, after submersion, these adsorbents are chemically treated to recuperate the uranium. Final quantities remain very low in comparison of the complex and costly operations to be done in sea. One kilogram of adsorbent, after one month of submersion, yields about 2 g of uranium and the adsorbent can only be used six times due to decreasing efficiency. The industrial extrapolation exercise made for the extraction of 1,200 tU/year give with these values a very costly installation installed on more than 1000 km2 of sea with a lot of boats for transportation and maintenance. The ecological management of this huge installation would present significant challenges. This research will continue to try to increase the efficiency of these adsorbents, but it is clear that it would be very risky today, to have a long-term industrial strategy based on significant production of uranium from seawater with an affordable cost
Investigation of the relationships between mechanical properties and microstructure in a Fe-9%Cr ODS steel
No full textFerritic-martensitic Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steels are potential materials for fuel pin cladding in Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) and their optimisation is essential for future industrial applications. In this paper, a feasibility study concerning the generation of tensile specimens using a quenching dilatometer is presented. The ODS steel investigated contains 9%Cr and exhibits a phase transformation between ferrite and austenite around 870 °C. The purpose was to generate different microstructures and to evaluate their tensile properties. Specimens were machined from a cladding tube and underwent controlled heat treatments inside the dilatometer. The microstructures were observed using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) and tensile tests were performed at room temperature and at 650 °C. Results show that a tempered martensitic structure is the optimum state for tensile loading at room temperature. At 650 °C, the strengthening mechanisms that are involved differ and the microstructures exhibit more similar yield strengths. It also appeared that decarburisation during heat treatment in the dilatometer induces a decrease in the mechanical properties and heterogeneities in the dual-phase microstructure. This has been addressed by proposing a treatment with a much shorter time in the austenitic domain. Thereafter, the relaxation of macroscopic residual stresses inside the tube during the heat treatment was evaluated. They appear to decrease linearly with increasing temperature and the phase transformation has a limited effect on the relaxation
Impact of the thermal scattering law of H in H
No full textThe contribution of the thermal scattering law of hydrogen in light water to isothermal temperature reactivity coefficients for UOX and MOX lattices was studied in the frame of the MISTRAL critical experiments carried out in the zero power reactor EOLE of CEA Cadarache (France). The interpretation of the core residual reactivity measured between 6 °C to 80 °C (by step of 5 °C) was performed with the Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI4®. The nuclear data from the JEFF-3.1.1 library were used in the calculations. Three different thermal scattering laws of hydrogen in light water were tested in order to evaluate their impact on the MISTRAL calculations. The thermal scattering laws of interest were firstly those recommended in JEFF-3.1.1 and ENDF/B-VII.1 and also that recently produced at the atomic center of Bariloche (CAB, Argentina) with molecular dynamic simulations. The present work indicates that the calculation-to-experimpental bias is −0.4 ± 0.3 pcm/°C in the UOX core and −1.0 ± 0.3 pcm/°C in the MOX cores, when the JEFF-3.1.1 library is used. An improvement is observed over the whole temperature range with the CAB model. The calculation-to-experimpental bias vanishes for the UOX core (−0.02 pcm/°C) and becomes close to −0.7 pcm/°C for the MOX cores. The magnitude of these bias have to be connected to the typical value of the temperature reactivity coefficient that ranges from −5 pcm/°C at Begining Of Cycle (BOC) up to −50 pcm/°C at End Of Cycle (EOC), in PWR conditions
Sustainability of thorium-uranium in pebble-bed fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor
No full textSustainability of thorium fuel in a Pebble-Bed Fluoride salt-cooled High temperature Reactor (PB-FHR) is investigated to find the feasible region of high discharge burnup and negative Flibe (2LiF-BeF2) salt Temperature Reactivity Coefficient (TRC). Dispersion fuel or pellet fuel with SiC cladding and SiC matrix is used to replace the tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) coated particle system for increasing fuel loading and decreasing excessive moderation. To analyze the neutronic characteristics, an equilibrium calculation method of thorium fuel self-sustainability is developed. We have compared two refueling schemes (mixing flow pattern and directional flow pattern) and two kinds of reflector materials (SiC and graphite). This method found that the feasible region of breeding and negative Flibe TRC is between 20 vol% and 62 vol% fuel loading in the fuel. A discharge burnup could be achieved up to about 200 MWd/kgHM. The case with directional flow pattern and SiC reflector showed superior burnup characteristics but the worst radial power peak factor, while the case with mixing flow pattern and SiC reflector, which was the best tradeoff between discharge burnup and radial power peak factor, could provide burnup of 140 MWd/kgHM and about 1.4 radial power peak factor with 50 vol% dispersion fuel. In addition, Flibe salt displays good neutron properties as a coolant of quasi-fast reactors due to the strong 9Be(n,2n) reaction and low neutron absorption of 6Li (even at 1000 ppm) in fast spectrum. Preliminary thermal hydraulic calculation shows good safety margin. The greatest challenge of this reactor may be the decades irradiation time of the pebble fuel