U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Inherent safety of minimum-burnup breed and burn reactors
Abstract
Reactors that aim to sustain the breed and burn (B and B) mode of operation at minimum discharge burnup require excellent neutron economy, Minimum-burnup B and B cores are generally large and feature low neutron leakage probability and a hard neutron spectrum. While highly promising fuel cycles can be achieved with such designs, the very same features are pushing the limits of the core's ability to passively respond safely to unprotected accidents. Low leakage minimum-burnup sodium-cooled B and B cores have a large positive coolant void-worth and coolant temperature reactivity coefficient. In this study, the applicability of major approaches for fast reactor void-worth reduction is evaluated specifically for B and B cores. The design, shuffling scheme and performance of a new metallic-fueled, sodium-cooled minimum burnup B and B core, used as basis for the void-worth reduction analysis, is presented. The analysis shows that reactivity control systems based on passive {sup 6}Li injection during temperature excursions are the only option able to provide negative void-worth without significantly increasing the minimum burnup required for sustaining the B and B mode of operation. A new type of lithium expansion module (LEM) system was developed specifically for B and B cores and its effectmore »
- Authors:
-
- Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1730 (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 22105978
- Resource Type:
- Conference
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP '12: 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Chicago, IL (United States), 24-28 Jun 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 21 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants - ICAPP '12| 2799 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; BREEDER REACTORS; BURNUP; EXCURSIONS; FAST REACTORS; FLUID INJECTION; FUEL CYCLE; LITHIUM; LITHIUM 6; NEUTRON FLUX; NEUTRON LEAKAGE; NEUTRON SPECTRA; REACTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS; REACTOR SAFETY; SODIUM COOLED REACTORS; VOID COEFFICIENT
Citation Formats
Qvist, S., and Reenspan, E. Inherent safety of minimum-burnup breed and burn reactors. United States: N. p., 2012.
Web.
Qvist, S., & Reenspan, E. Inherent safety of minimum-burnup breed and burn reactors. United States.
Qvist, S., and Reenspan, E. 2012.
"Inherent safety of minimum-burnup breed and burn reactors". United States.
@article{osti_22105978,
title = {Inherent safety of minimum-burnup breed and burn reactors},
author = {Qvist, S. and Reenspan, E.},
abstractNote = {Reactors that aim to sustain the breed and burn (B and B) mode of operation at minimum discharge burnup require excellent neutron economy, Minimum-burnup B and B cores are generally large and feature low neutron leakage probability and a hard neutron spectrum. While highly promising fuel cycles can be achieved with such designs, the very same features are pushing the limits of the core's ability to passively respond safely to unprotected accidents. Low leakage minimum-burnup sodium-cooled B and B cores have a large positive coolant void-worth and coolant temperature reactivity coefficient. In this study, the applicability of major approaches for fast reactor void-worth reduction is evaluated specifically for B and B cores. The design, shuffling scheme and performance of a new metallic-fueled, sodium-cooled minimum burnup B and B core, used as basis for the void-worth reduction analysis, is presented. The analysis shows that reactivity control systems based on passive {sup 6}Li injection during temperature excursions are the only option able to provide negative void-worth without significantly increasing the minimum burnup required for sustaining the B and B mode of operation. A new type of lithium expansion module (LEM) system was developed specifically for B and B cores and its effect on core performance is presented. (authors)},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22105978},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012},
month = {Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012}
}