Feasibility neutronic design for the reactor core configurations of a 5 MWth transportable block-type HTR

Subjects: Nuclear Science and Technology >> Engineering Technology of Fission Reactor submitted time 2023-06-18 Cooperative journals: 《Nuclear Science and Techniques》

DING Ming KLOOSTERMAN Jan Leen

Abstract： Small long-life transportable high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTRs) are interesting because they can safely provide electricity or heat in remote areas or to industrial users in developed or developing countries. This paper presents the neutronic design of the U-Battery, which is a 5 MWth block-type HTR with a fuel lifetime of 5–10 years. Assuming a reactor pressure vessel diameter of less than 3.7 m, some possible reactor core configurations of the 5 MWth U-Battery have been investigated using the TRITON module in SCALE 6. The neutronic analysis shows that Layout 12×2B, a scattering core containing 2 layers of 12 fuel blocks each with 20% enriched ²³⁵U, reaches a fuel lifetime of 10 effective full power years (EFPYs). When the diameter of the reactor pressure vessel is reduced to 1.8 m, a fuel lifetime of 4 EFPYs will be achieved for the 5 MWth U-Battery with a 25-cm thick graphite side reflector. Layouts 6×3 and 6×4 with a 25-cm thick BeO side reflector achieve a fuel lifetime of 7 and 10 EFPYs, respectively. The comparison of the different core configurations shows that, keeping the number of fuel blocks in the reactor core constant, the annular and scattering core configurations have longer fuel lifetimes and lower fuel cost than the cylindrical ones. Moreover, for the 5 MWth U-Battery, reducing the fuel inventory in the reactor core by decreasing the diameter of fuel kernels and packing fraction of TRISO particles is more effective to lower the fuel cost than decreasing the ²³⁵U enrichment.

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