Effects and Modeling of Power History in Thorium-Based Fuels in Pressure-Tube Heavy Water Reactors

被引：9

作者：

Bromley, Blair P. ^{[1
]}

Edwards, Geoffrey W. R. ^{[1
]}

Sambavalingam, Pranavan ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Canadian Nucl Labs, Chalk River Keys Bldg,1 Plant Rd, Chalk River, ON K0J 1J0, Canada

[2] Univ Ontario Inst Technol, Fac Energy Syst & Nucl Sci, 2000 Simcoe St North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada

来源：

NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING | 2016年 / 182卷 / 03期

关键词：

Heavy water; thorium; power history;

D O I：

10.13182/NSE15-19

中图分类号：

TL [原子能技术]; O571 [原子核物理学];

学科分类号：

0827 ; 082701 ;

摘要：

Lattice and core physics modeling and calculations have been performed to quantify the impact of power flux levels and power history on the reactivity and achievable burnup for 35-element fuel bundles made with thorium-based fuels, such as (Pu,Th)O-2 and (U-233,Th)O-2. These bundles are designed to produce on the order of 20 MWd/kg burnup in homogeneous cores in a 700-MW(electric) class pressure-tube heavy water reactor, operating on a once-through thorium cycle. Methods have been developed to model time-dependent power histories in lattice physics calculations that are more consistent with core physics analysis results. Results demonstrate that the impact of power/flux level and the modeling of time-dependent power histories on the core power distributions and achievable fuel burnup are modest for Pu/Th fuels but are more significant for U-233/Th fuels. Thus, to reduce the neutron capture rate in Pa-233 and to increase fuel burnup and fissile utilization, there may be an incentive to develop solutions to reduce the time-average specific power in the fuel.

引用

页码：263 / 286

页数：24