Optimized design of reactor cores for continuous operation of Belgian nuclear power plants

Conference · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:22765219

Schneidesch, C.; Haedens, M.; Zhang, J. ^[1]; Meert, A. ^[2]

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1. Core and Fuel Studies, Tractebel - ENGIE, Avenue Ariane 7, B-1200 Brussels (Belgium)
2. Nuclear Fuel Management - ENGIE Electrabel, Boulevard Simon Bolivar 34, 1000 Brussels (Belgium)

Two Belgian nuclear power plants, owned and operated by Electrabel, were initially planned to be phased out in 2015, reaching their maximum life time of operation by the initial design. The fuel management of those two units has been subsequently designed by Tractebel to make the best use of the energy in the fuel assemblies either in the core or in the storage pool and to minimize the size of the fresh reloads in the terminating cycles. However, for ensuring energy security in Belgium, the Government decided in the same year to extend the life time of operation of the two units for 10 years, which raised the need to resume their continuous operation, in the opposite direction of the core contents and with a significant break in the usual sequence of cycle reloads. All this required adaptation of the tools and process for optimized reactor core design, in order to ensure the continuous and flexible operation of those units. The Tractebel LWRWIMS-PANTHER (LWP) core physics package is based on the 3-dimensional (3D) neutronic code PANTHER and the lattice code LWRWIMS for the generation of the assembly nuclear data. Both have been qualified by Tractebel for the Belgian Units to perform a complete range of PWR reactor calculations for fuel management design safety parameters assessment, transient analysis and operational support. In-core fuel management involves calculating core reactivity, power distribution and isotopic inventory for subsequent fuel cycles of a nuclear power plant in order to maintain adequate safety margins and operating lifetime for each core loading. This paper presents Tractebel's improved core design tools and process, the approach to optimize the reactor core design, and the applications to the 2 successive but opposite design requirements.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22765219
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BELGIUM
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL MANAGEMENT
L CODES
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OPTIMIZATION
P CODES
POWER DISTRIBUTION
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR FUELING
REACTOR OPERATION
SAFETY MARGINS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS