Neutronic Features of the GT-MHR Reactor

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2002

OSTI ID:21064604

Kodochigov, N; Sukharev, Yu; Marova, E ^[1]; Ponomarev-Stepnoy, N; Glushkov, E; Fomichenko, P ^[2]; Baxter, A ^[3]

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1. OKB Mechanical Engineering, 15 Nizhny Novgorod, Burnakovsky proezd, 603074 (Russian Federation)
2. RRC Kurchatov Institute Kurchatov Square, 46 Moscow 123182 (Russian Federation)
3. General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, CA 92186-5608 (United States)

The design of a Gas Turbine - Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) of 600 MWt power is being developed in frames of 'The Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Management of Plutonium That Has Been Withdrawn from Nuclear Military Programs' signed on July 24, 1998. The reactor concept is based on the deep burnup of initially loaded plutonium fuel in a single pass through the reactor and the subsequent disposal of the spent fuel without additional processing. The present report describes the analysis of the basic features of the reactor core fueled by plutonium: (1) The annular type core design is used to decrease fuel temperature in accidents without active heat removal. (2) Unlike other alternatives for plutonium disposition, in the GT-MHR reactor no fertile materials like U-238, or Th-232 are used. Erbium is used as a burnable poison and means for ensuring the negative temperature coefficient of reactivity. (3) Deep fuel burnup (640 MW d/kg on the average) leads to the significant accumulation of Pu-241 during irradiation of weapons grade Pu fuel. This fact determines the specific time dependence of the multiplication factor in the end of the fuel lifetime. (4) Rather hard neutron spectrum in the annular-type active core, and the essentially thermal spectrum in the reflectors cause a peak in the power distribution near the core-reflector boundary. Fuel and burnable poison zoning are used to control power profile. (5) The movement of control rods located in the side reflector noticeably deforms the power distribution in the core. (6) The temperature coefficient of reactivity depends both on the temperature and burnup level. In the GT-MHR reactor with plutonium fuel the temperature reactivity coefficient has values close to zero for temperatures less than 400 deg. C at the end of the partial fuel cycle. (7) Deep fuel burnup, achievable through the use of fuel particles with multilayer coatings, and high efficiency of transforming the thermal energy into electricity allow the effective utilization of plutonium in the GT-MHR reactor. (authors)

• Research Organization: The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21064604
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BURNABLE POISONS
BURNUP
CONTROL ELEMENTS
DESIGN
FERTILE MATERIALS
GAS TURBINES
HELIUM
HELIUM COOLED REACTORS
MULTIPLICATION FACTORS
NEUTRON SPECTRA
PLUTONIUM
PLUTONIUM 241
POWER DISTRIBUTION
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORES
SPENT FUELS
TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT
THORIUM 232
URANIUM 238