Design study of gas-cooled fast reactor with natural uranium as fuel employing modified CANDLE shuffling strategy in the axial direction
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Jean Pierre Ndayiragije
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Zaki Su’ud
Abstract
This study investigated gas-cooled fast reactor performance utilizing natural uranium as the fuel employs modified constant axial shape of neutron flux, nuclide densities, and power shape during life of energy production (CANDLE) shuffling strategy in the axial direction. The performance has been carried out on a reactor with various power levels in the range of 2,700–3,100 MWt and refueling every 10 years of burnup. The main importance of the modified CANDLE (MCANDLE) is that it can utilize natural uranium as fuel without needs reprocessing or enrichment plant. During this work, the core has been partitioned into 10 regions of similar volume along the axial direction. The fuel was filled into the first region, then transported to the second region after 10 years of burnup, and then to the third region 10 years later. This technique was practiced to all 10 regions, and the fuel in the tenth region was discharged in the reactor core. 10 % of natural thorium, natural uranium and enriched nitride (15 N) were used as fuel input. The calculations were performed employing a standard reactor analysis code (SRAC). The collision probability method (PIJ) module of SRAC was used to calculate cell burnup, and the reactor core design calculations were done with the CITATION module of SRAC, which used JENDL-4.0 as a nuclear data library. The result shows that a high power level causes an increasing rate of burnup level and effective multiplication factor. The highest average discharge burnup level is about 31.3 % HM for case E and the lowest average discharge burnup is about 27.2 % HM for case A.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: Jean Pierre Ndayiragije: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualisation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Reviewing and Editing. Zaki Su’ud: Conceptualization, Supervision, Methodology, Validation, Writing-Reviewing and Editing. Abdul Waris: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing-Reviewing and Editing. Dwi Irwanto: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing-Reviewing and Editing.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: There are no competing financial interests or personal relationships.
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Research funding: The study was funding by ITB research program, Faculty of Mathematics and natural science, department of Physics, Nuclear and Biophysics research division.
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Data availability: Not applicable.
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- Design study of gas-cooled fast reactor with natural uranium as fuel employing modified CANDLE shuffling strategy in the axial direction
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Comprehensive review of surface contamination in nuclear waste waters: identification, quantification, and mitigation strategies
- Methodology of probabilistic safety assessment for transportation of radioactive material
- A new approach to determine abnormality of radioactive discharges from pressurized water reactors and to derive abnormality indicators correlated with a specific causal event
- A critical analysis of the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in enhancing nuclear waste management
- Design study of gas-cooled fast reactor with natural uranium as fuel employing modified CANDLE shuffling strategy in the axial direction
- Synthesis, structural transformation and magnetic properties of the Nd(III)-doped Fe3−xNd x O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.9): an analogue for actinicles immobilization
- Examination of the use of thorium-based fuel for burning minor actinides in European sodium cooled fast reactor
- Solitary wave form of reaction rate in graphite diffusive medium using different neutron absorbers
- Evaluation of the unavailability of the primary circuit of Triga SSR reactor, importance factors and risk criteria for its components
- Thermal-hydraulic simulation of loss of flow accident for WWR-S research reactor
- A quick parameter configuration tool for SCHISM’s ocean transport simulation of radioactive materials
- Main heat transport system configuration influence on steam drum level control and safety for a pressure tube type boiling water reactor with multiple interconnected loops
- Testing the thermal performance of water cooling towers
- Design a robust intelligent power controller for pressurized water reactor using particle swarm optimization algorithm
- Calendar of events
