Heavy water breeder conceptual core design
A reference design was developed for a close packed pressurized heavy water cooled and moderated breeder core, operating on the uranium plutonium cycle. The seed-blanket concept was found to be most advantageous. The core is composed of a large number of identical seed-blanket units, each of which is controlled by moving the seed, which is zoned in such a way as to vary the leakage of neutrons between the seed and blanket. The control method is known as Geometry Control. In order to assure a negative void coefficient at all times during life it was necessary to dilute the heavy water with 20% light water. Initial fuel loading was approximately 4700 kg of fissionable plutonium of recycle composition. This leading was sufficient for approximately a two-year lifetime, at the end of which the Fissile Inventory Ratio (FIR) was 1.05. (FIR is the ratio of fissile fuel in the core at any time to that at the beginning of core life). A thermal hydraulic analysis indicated that the core could fit into the pressure vessel of a standard pressurized light reactor and would meet safety requirements in case of a LOCA.
- Research Organization:
- Tel Aviv Univ. (Israel). Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies; Touro Coll., Silver Spring, MD (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5335963
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-NP-2176; ON: DE82902208; TRN: 82-013292
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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BREEDER REACTORS
REACTOR CORES
HEAVY WATER COOLED REACTORS
HEAVY WATER MODERATED REACTORS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
REACTIVITY WORTHS
DESIGN
FUEL CYCLE
REACTOR KINETICS
VOID COEFFICIENT
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID MECHANICS
KINETICS
MECHANICS
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
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210500* - Power Reactors
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