ARDS-2017-615-035

A Neutronic Study of Uranium-Transuranium and Molybdenum Alloy Fuel (U-TRU-Mo) For Fast Reactors

Author: Noushin Salsabil (2017-615-035)

Status: Done

Abstract: In this work, a comprehensive study of U-TRU-Mo alloy fuel for a fast reactor has been conducted using the Monte Carlo transport solver OpenMC. Small Modular Fast Reactor(SMFR) has been taken as the reference fast reactor for this research. The core design consists of 114 assemblies with 48 fuel assemblies, 30 reflector assemblies, 36 shield assemblies, and 7 control rod assemblies which are arranged in a hexagonal lattice. The fuel assemblies are of 3 types differentiated by their enrichment. The inner fuel assembly has the lowest enrichment and the outer fuel assembly has the highest enrichment to make the core radial power profile flatten. To evaluate the neutronic parameters for U-TRU-Mo alloy fuel, this enrichment zone was kept intact. By running a simulation, it was observed that for both reference fuel and proposed Mo alloy fuel neutron flux profile and power profile remain almost the same. Critical radius was also calculated, where it was seen that the proposed fuel has an advantage-a more compact core can be designed using this type of fuel. The proposed fuel-Mo alloy fuel- has a slightly greater value of Beta effective than the reference fuel, which makes it safer than accidents and ensures operability. Thus proposed fuel demonstrated here is promising from the neutronic perspective.

Publications: (TBA)