Investigation of neutronic and safety parameters variation in 5 MW research reactor due to U3O8Al fuel conversion to ThO2 + U3O8Al
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Z. Gholamzadeh
Abstract
Thorium-based fuels could comprise several advantages and are being investigated as a potentially competitive option with uranium-based fuels for research or power reactors. The present study investigates computationally the application of two different thorium-based fuels in a research reactor. Void and temperature reactivity coefficients, safety factor, power peaking factor, neutron generation time, effective delayed neutron fraction and 135Xe worth parameter were investigated for the fuel conversions. The results showed both the investigated fuels would not significantly disturb neutronic and safety parameters of the modeled core in comparison with its routine fuel loading. However, 235-enriched thorium based fuel concluded in noticeably reduction of High Level Waste (HLW) but 233-enriched type could be taken in attention because of its longer fuel cycle (̴15%) and integrated neutron flux (̴23%).
Abstract
Brennstoffe auf der Grundlage von Thorium können verschiedene Vorteile mit sich bringen und werden als Option für Uran-basierte Brennstoffe für Forschungs- oder Leistungsreaktoren betrachtet. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die Anwendung zwei verschiedener Thorium-basierter Brennstoffe in einem Forschungsreaktor rechnerisch unter-sucht. Void- und Temperaturkoeffizienten, Sicherheitsfaktor, Leistungsspitzen, Neutronenerzeugung, effektiver Anteil verzögerter Neutronen und die 135Xe Reaktivität wurden untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass beide untersuchte Brennstoffe das Verhalten der Neutronen und der Sicherheitsparameter des modellierten Kerns nicht wesentlich verändern im Vergleich zum üblichen Brennstoff. Allerdings ergibt sich bei Brennstoff auf der Grundlage von angereichertem Thorium-235 eine merkliche Reduktion von hochradioaktivem Abfall, während Thorium-233 basierter Brennstoff einen längeren Brennstoffzyklus (̴15%) und integrierten Neutronenfluss (̴23%) hat.
Acknowledgements
Authors are grateful to Reactor Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute for supporting the research.
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Books · Bücher
Performance of Models in Radiological Impact Assessment for Normal Operation. Report of Working Group 1 Reference Methodologies for Controlling Discharges of Routine Releases of EMRAS II Topical Heading Reference Approaches for Hu- man Dose Assessment Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety (EMRAS II) Programme. IAEA-TECDOC-1808, Pub- lished by the International Atomic Energy Agency 2017, ISBN 978-92-0-112616-0, 96 pp., 18.00 EUR.
Environmental assessment models are used for evaluating the radiological impact of actual and potential releases of radionuclides to the environment. They are essential tools for use in the regulatory control of routine discharges to the environment and also in planning measures to be taken in the event of accidental releases; they are also used for pre- dicting the impact of releases which may occur far into the fu- ture, for example, from underground radioactive waste repo- sitories. It is important to verify, to the extent possible, the reliability of the predictions of such models by comparison with measured values in the environment or by comparing them with the predictions of other models.
For the estimation of dose to members of the public, models which include mathematical representations of physical-chemical processes occurring in the environment are needed and different but consistent approaches can be applied by each modeller. It is important to ensure the consistency amongst the different approaches in order to provide tools for decision makers which enable similar conclusions to be reached for a similar exposure scenario, despite the possible differences in the results of the models. In order to compare different modelers’ results, it is important that the exposure scenario including, for example, the radioactive source term, the location of the member of the public to be considered, the exposure pathways, and the habit data and food consumption rates necessary to run the models are agreed upon in advance. Consequently, the differences in the results are only due to the different models characteristics. The intention of this work is not to define good or bad models but to try to explain and justify, where possible, such differences. Then, decision makers can make appropriate decisions knowing the limitations in environmental modelling by, for example, making conservative assumptions and including appropriate safety margins.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Best estimate approach for the evaluation of critical heat flux phenomenon in the boiling water reactors
- Coupled neutronic core and subchannel analysis of nanofluids in VVER-1000 type reactor
- PCTRAN enhancement for large break loss of coolant accident concurrent with loss of offsite power in VVER-1000 simulation
- Experimental study of natural circulation flow instability in rectangular channels
- Exerimental method and preliminary studies of the passive containment water film evaporation mass transfer
- Automated generation of burnup chain for reactor analysis applications
- Fission source sampling in coupled Monte Carlo simulations
- Hysteresis phenomenon in nuclear reactor dynamics
- Investigation of neutronic and safety parameters variation in 5 MW research reactor due to U3O8Al fuel conversion to ThO2 + U3O8Al
- Implementation of meso-scale radioactive dispersion model for GPU
- Solution of the multilayer multigroup neutron diffusion equation in cartesian geometry by fictitious borders power method
- Half-space albedo problem with modified FN method for linear and quadratic anisotropic scattering
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Best estimate approach for the evaluation of critical heat flux phenomenon in the boiling water reactors
- Coupled neutronic core and subchannel analysis of nanofluids in VVER-1000 type reactor
- PCTRAN enhancement for large break loss of coolant accident concurrent with loss of offsite power in VVER-1000 simulation
- Experimental study of natural circulation flow instability in rectangular channels
- Exerimental method and preliminary studies of the passive containment water film evaporation mass transfer
- Automated generation of burnup chain for reactor analysis applications
- Fission source sampling in coupled Monte Carlo simulations
- Hysteresis phenomenon in nuclear reactor dynamics
- Investigation of neutronic and safety parameters variation in 5 MW research reactor due to U3O8Al fuel conversion to ThO2 + U3O8Al
- Implementation of meso-scale radioactive dispersion model for GPU
- Solution of the multilayer multigroup neutron diffusion equation in cartesian geometry by fictitious borders power method
- Half-space albedo problem with modified FN method for linear and quadratic anisotropic scattering
