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ANALYSIS OF PEBBLE FUELLED ZONE MODELING INFLUENCE ON HTR CORE CALCULATIONS
No full textThe pebble bed gas-cooled reactor is one of the most promising concepts among the Generation III and Generation IV reactors. Currently, the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) design, both U and Pu and minor actinide fueled, is being developed. Modeling the arrangement of coated particles (CPs) inside a spherical region like a pebble seems to be an important issue in the frame of calculations. To use the (relatively) old Monte Carlo codes without any correction, some approximations are often introduced. Recent Monte Carlo codes like MCNP5 and some new original subroutines that we have developed allow the possibility of obtaining more detailed and more physically correct geometrical descriptions of this kind of system. Some studies on modeling pebbles and pebble bed cores have already been carried out by other researchers, but these works are substantially limited to AVR-type UO2-fueled pebbles. However, the impact of approximated models on fuel mass, reactivity, and reactor life prediction has not yet been investigated for new PBMR-type pebbles.
At the same time, an assessment of introducing a stochastic CP arrangement is not so widespread. Analyzing two PBMR pebbles, one Pu- and the other U-fueled, this paper focuses on quantifying errors due to the different approximations generally used to describe the CP lattice inside a high-temperature reactor pebble bed core, as far as mass of fuel, reactivity, and burnup simulation are concerned. This aim was reached also through a new feature implemented in the MCNP5 code, i.e., capability to treat (pseudo) stochastic geometries. Later, we compared the initial mass of fuel, keff , and isotopic evolution versus burnup of some approximated ebble models with the reference model, built by means of this new MCNP5 feature
Simplified models for pebble-bed HTR core burn-up calculations with Monteburns2.0©
No full textThis paper aims at comparing some simplified models to simulate irradiation cycles of Pu fuelled pebble-bed reactors with Monteburns2.0© code. As a reference core, the PBMR-400 (proposed in the framework of the EU PUMA project, where this kind of core fuelled by a Pu and Pu–Np fuel has been studied) was taken into account.
Pebble-bed High Temperature Reactor (HTR) cores consist of hundreds of thousands pebbles arranged stochastically in a cylindrical or annular space and each pebble is a single fuel element, and it is able to reach ultra-high burn-ups, i.e. up to 750 GWd/tHM (for Pu-based fuels). Additionally, pebble-bed cores are characterised by a continuous recirculation of pebbles from the top to the bottom of the core.
Modelling accurately with current computer codes such an arrangement, in order to predict the behaviour of the core itself, is a very difficult task and any depletion code specifically devoted to pebble-bed burn-up calculation is not available at the moment. Because of limitations of the most common current MCNP-based depletion codes as well as huge calculation times, simplified models have to be implemented.
After an analysis of the literature available on pebble-bed models for criticality and burn-up calculations, a preliminary assessment of the impact of different kind of simplified models for a Pu-Np fuelled Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), proposed in the framework of the EU PUMA project, is shown, particularly as far as burn-up prediction with Monteburns2.0© code is concerned
New Developments in Actinides Burning with Symbiotic LWR-HTR-GCFR fuel cycles: perspectives and challenges
No full textNUCLEAR WASTE BURNING: AN IMPORTANT GOAL IN THE FRAME OF THE GENERATION IV OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
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Nuclear waste impact reduction using multiple fuel recycling strategies
No full textThe paper deals with the use of a symbiotic cycle in order to minimize the LWR waste radiotoxicity, improving, on the same line, previous work[1]. The obtained results could be considered rather positive. We will show what is possible to do in this field using new original symbiotic cycles, remarkably improving the previous results.
To reach this goal, we investigated innovative fuel cycles by using the gas cooled reactors (both thermal and fast). Their very favourable neutronic economy, supported by an appropriated spectrum, allows to transmute/fission actinides, in particular transuranic ones. In this frame, we developed a strategy based on an original symbiotic fuel cycle.
We assume to begin using, as normal, enriched uranium in LWRs.
The second step deals with burning all the actinides recovered from LWRs spent fuel in HTRs. One of the major innovative results after this irradiation consists in the strong reduction of the neptunium which represents one of the greatest concerns in long term disposal.
The last one consists in adding, as fuel in GCFRs, depleted uranium together with all the residual actinides of HTR spent fuel.
As final result we obtain a reduction of the Level Of Mine Balancing Time (LOMBT) from 250000[11] (LWR once through) to about 200 years (proposed symbiotic cycle).
This research has to be considered in progress and needs of further confirmation mainly from a technological point of view
A Critical Review of the Recent Improvements in Minimizing Nuclear Waste by Innovative Gas-Cooled Reactors
Full text linkThis paper presents a critical review of the recent improvements in minimizing nuclear waste in terms of quantities, long-term activities, and radiotoxicities by innovative GCRs, with particular emphasis to the results obtained at the University of Pisa. Regarding these last items, in the frame of some EU projects (GCFR, PUMA, and RAPHAEL), we analyzed symbiotic fuel cycles coupling current LWRs with HTRs, finally closing the cycle by GCFRs. Particularly, we analyzed fertile-free and Pu-Th-based fuel in HTR: we improved plutonium exploitation also by optimizing Pu/Th ratios in the fuel loaded in an HTR. Then, we chose GCFRs to burn residual MA. We have started the calculations on simplified models, but we ended them using more “realistic” models of the reactors. In addition, we have added the GCFR multiple recycling option using keff calculations for all the reactors. As a conclusion, we can state that, coupling HTR with GCFR, the geological disposal issues concerning high-level radiotoxicity of MA can be considerably reduced
Erratum for “Assessment of LWR-HTR-GCFR Integrated Cycle”
Full text linkPreliminary analyses already performed showed that innovative GCRs, both thermal and fast, are very promising candidate to reach the Gen-IV sustainability goal. The integrated LWR-HTR-GCFR basically aims at closing the current nuclear fuel cycle: in principle, thanks to the unique characteristics of Helium coolant reactors, LWR SNF along with DU become valuable material to produce energy. Additionally, burning HMs of LWR SNF means not only a drastic reduction in the Unat demand but also a remarkable decrease in the long-term radiotoxic component of nuclear waste to be geologically stored. This paper focuses on the analyses of the LWR-HTR-GCFR cycle performed by the University of Pisa in the frame of the EU PUMA project (6th FP). Starting from a brief outline of the main characteristics of HTR and GCFR concepts and of the advantages of linking LWR, HTR and GCFR in a symbiotic way, this paper shows the integrated cycle involving a typical LWR (1000 MWe), a PBMR (400 MWth) and a GCFR-“E” (2400 MWth). Additionally, a brief overview of the main technological constraints concerning (Pu+MA)-based advanced fuels is given, in order to explain and justify the choices made in the framework of the considered cycle. Thereafter, calculations performed and results obtained are described
Comparison among MCNP-based depletion codes applied to burnup calculations of pebble-bed HTR lattices
No full textThe double-heterogeneity characterising pebble-bed high temperature reactors (HTRs) makes Monte Carlo based calculation tools the most suitable for detailed core analyses. These codes can be successfully used to predict the isotopic evolution during irradiation of the fuel of this kind of cores. At the moment, there are many computational systems based on MCNP that are available for performing depletion calculation. All these systems use MCNP to supply problem dependent fluxes and/or microscopic cross sections to the depletion module. This latter then calculates the isotopic evolution of the fuel resolving Bateman's equations. In this paper, a comparative analysis of three different MCNP-based depletion codes is performed: Montburns2.0, MCNPX2.6.0 and BGCore. Monteburns code can be considered as the reference code for HTR calculations, since it has been already verified during HTR-N and HTR-N1 EU project. All calculations have been performed on a reference model representing an infinite lattice of thorium-plutonium fuelled pebbles. The evolution of k-inf as a function of burnup has been compared, as well as the inventory of the important actinides. The k-inf comparison among the codes shows a good agreement during the entire burnup history with the maximum difference lower than 1%. The actinide inventory prediction agrees well. However significant discrepancy in Am and Cm concentrations calculated by MCNPX as compared to those of Monteburns and BGCore has been observed. This is mainly due to different Am-241 (n,γ) branching ratio utilized by the codes. The important advantage of BGCore is its significantly lower execution time required to perform considered depletion calculations. While providing reasonably accurate results BGCore runs depletion problem about two times faster than Monteburns and two to five times faster than MCNPX. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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