A Neutronics Feasibility Study for the LEU Conversion of Poland's Maria Research Reactor PDF Download
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Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 12
Book Description
The MARIA reactor is a high-flux multipurpose research reactor which is water-cooled and moderated with both beryllium and water. Standard HEU (80% 235U)fuel assemblies consist of six concentric fuel tubes of a U-Al alloy clad in aluminum. Although the inventory of HEU (80%) fuel is nearly exhausted, a supply of highly-loaded 36%-enriched fuel assemblies is available at the reactor site. Neutronic equilibrium studies have been made to determine the relative performance of fuels with enrichments of 80%, 36% and 19.7%. These studies indicate that LEU (19.7%) densities of about 2.5 gU/cm3 and 3.8 gU/cm3 are required to match the performance of the MARIA reactor with 80%-enriched and with 36%-enriched fuels, respectively.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 12
Book Description
The MARIA reactor is a high-flux multipurpose research reactor which is water-cooled and moderated with both beryllium and water. Standard HEU (80% 235U)fuel assemblies consist of six concentric fuel tubes of a U-Al alloy clad in aluminum. Although the inventory of HEU (80%) fuel is nearly exhausted, a supply of highly-loaded 36%-enriched fuel assemblies is available at the reactor site. Neutronic equilibrium studies have been made to determine the relative performance of fuels with enrichments of 80%, 36% and 19.7%. These studies indicate that LEU (19.7%) densities of about 2.5 gU/cm3 and 3.8 gU/cm3 are required to match the performance of the MARIA reactor with 80%-enriched and with 36%-enriched fuels, respectively.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 13
Book Description
A neutronic feasibility study for conversion of the Budapest Research Reactor (BRR) from HEU to LEU fuel was performed at Argonne National Laboratory in cooperation with the KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute in Hungary. Comparisons were made of the reactor performance with the current HEU (36%) fuel and with a proposed LEU (19.75%) fuel. Cycle lengths, thermal neutron fluxes, and rod worths were calculated in equilibrium-type cores for each type of fuel. Relative to the HEU fuel, the LEU fuel has up to a 50% longer fuel cycle length, but a 7-10% smaller thermal neutron flux in the experiment locations. The rod worths are smaller with the LEU fuel, but are still large enough to easily satisfy the BRR shutdown margin criteria. Irradiation testing of four VVR-M2 LEU fuel assemblies that are nearly the same as the proposed BRR LEU fuel assemblies is currently in progress at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 13
Book Description
Equilibrium fuel cycle comparisons for the IR-8 research reactor were made for HEU(90%), HEU(36%), and LEU (19.75%) fuel assembly (FA) designs using three dimensional multi-group diffusion theory models benchmarked to detailed Monte Carlo models of the reactor. Comparisons were made of changes in reactivity, cycle length, average 235U discharge burnup, thermal neutron flux, and control rod worths for the 90% and 36% enriched IRT-3M fuel assembly and the 19.75% enriched IRT-4M fuel assembly with the same fuel management strategy. The results of these comparisons showed that a uranium density of 3.5 g/cm3 in the fuel meat would be required in the LEU IRT-4M fuel assembly to match the cycle length of the HEU(90%) IRT-3M FA and an LEU density of 3.7 g/cm3 is needed to match the cycle length of the HEU(36%) IRT-3M FA.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 11
Book Description
A neutronic feasibility study for converting the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor from HEU to LEU fuel was performed at Argonne National Laboratory in cooperation with Brookhaven National Laboratory. Two possible LEU cores were identified that would provide nearly the same neutron flux and spectrum as the present HEU core at irradiation facilities that are used for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy and for animal research. One core has 17 and the other has 18 LEU MTR-type fuel assemblies with uranium densities of 2.5g U/cm3 or less in the fuel meat. This LEU fuel is fully-qualified for routine use. Thermal hydraulics and safety analyses need to be performed to complete the feasibility study.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The MARIA reactor at the Institute of Atomic Energy (IAE) in Swierk (30 km SE of Warsaw) in the Republic of Poland is considering conversion from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel assemblies (FA). The FA design in MARIA is rather unique; a suitable LEU FA has never been designed or tested. IAE has contracted with CERCA (the fuel supply portion of AREVA in France) to supply 2 lead test assemblies (LTA). The LTAs will be irradiated in MARIA to burnup level of at least 40% for both LTAs and to 60% for one LTA. IAE may decide to purchase additional LEU FAs for a full core conversion after the test irradiation. The Reactor Safety Committee within IAE and the National Atomic Energy Agency in Poland (PAA) must approve the LTA irradiation process. The approval will be based, in part, on IAE submitting revisions to portions of the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) which are affected by the insertion of the LTAs. (A similar process will be required for the full core conversion to LEU fuel.) The analysis required was established during working meetings between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and IAE staff during August 2006, subsequent email correspondence, and subsequent staff visits. The analysis needs to consider the current high-enriched uranium (HEU) core and 4 core configurations containing 1 and 2 LEU LTAs in various core positions. Calculations have been performed at ANL in support of the LTA irradiation. These calculations are summarized in this report and include criticality, burn-up, neutronics parameters, steady-state thermal hydraulics, and postulated transients. These calculations have been performed at the request of the IAE staff, who are performing similar calculations to be used in their SAR amendment submittal to the PAA. The ANL analysis has been performed independently from that being performed by IAE and should only be used as one step in the verification process.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 14
Book Description
The WWR-SM research reactor in Uzbekistan has operated at 10 MW since 1979, using Russian-supplied IRT-3M fuel assemblies containing 90% enriched uranium. Burnup tests of three full-sized IRT-3M FA with 36% enrichment were successfully completed to a burn up of about (approximately)50% in 1987-1989. In August 1998, four IRT-3M FA with 36% enriched uranium were loaded into the core to initiate conversion of the entire core to 36% enriched fuel. This paper presents the results of equilibrium fuel cycle comparisons of the reactor using HEU (90%) and HEU (36%) IRT-3M fuel and compares results with the performance of IRT-4M FA containing LEU (19.75%). The results show that an LEU (19.75%) density of 3.8 g/cm3 is required to match the cycle length of the HEU (90%) core and an LEU density 3.9 g/cm3 is needed to match the cycle length of the HEU (36%) core.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 9
Book Description
A neutronic feasibility study for converting the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory from HEU to LEU fuel was performed at Argonne National Laboratory. The purpose of this study is to determine what LEU fuel density would be needed to provide fuel lifetime and neutron flux performance similar to the current HEU fuel. The results indicate that it is not possible to convert the HFBR to LEU fuel with the current reactor core configuration. To use LEU fuel, either the core needs to be reconfigured to increase the neutron thermalization or a new LEU reactor design needs to be considered. This paper presents results of reactor calculations for a reference 28-assembly HEU-fuel core configuration and for an alternative 18-assembly LEU-fuel core configuration with increased neutron thermalization. Neutronic studies show that similar in-core and ex-core neutron fluxes, and fuel cycle length can be achieved using high-density LEU fuel with about 6.1 gU/cm3 in an altered reactor core configuration. However, hydraulic and safety analyses of the altered HFBR core configuration needs to be performed in order to establish the feasibility of this concept.
Author: Kyle Anthony Britton Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 60
Book Description
The National Bureau of Standards Reactor (NBSR) located on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg campus, is currently underway of fuel conversion from high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. One particular challenging part of the conversion of the NBSR is the high average flux level (2.5x1014 n/cm2-s) required to maintain experimental testing capabilities of the reactor, without significant changes to the external structures of the reactor. Recently the General Atomics (GA) Training Research Isotopes General Atomics (TRIGA) fuel has shown some promising features as a LEU candidate for the high performance research reactors such as the NBSR. The GA fuel has a long history of success in conversion of research reactors since it was developed in 1980s. The UZrH compound in the GA fuel has seen success in long term TRIGA reactors, and is a proven safe LEU alternative. This study performs a neutronics evaluation of the TRIGA fuel under the schema of the NBSR's heavy conversion requirements in order to examine whether the TRIGA fuel is a viable option for conversion of the NBSR. To determine the most optimal path of conversion, we performed a feasibility study with particular regard to the fuel dimensions, fuel rod configurations, cladding, as well as fuel structure selection. Based on the outcome of the feasibility study, an equilibrium core is then generated following the NBSR's current fuel management schema. Key neutronics performance characteristics including flux distribution, power distribution, control rod (i.e., shim arms) worth, as well as kinetics parameters of the equilibrium core are calculated and evaluated. MCNP6, a Monte Carlo based computational modeling software was intensively used to aid in these calculations. The results of this study will provide important insight on the effectiveness of conversion, as well as determine the viability of the conversion from HEU to LEU using the GA fuel.
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Author: Kyle Anthony Britton