Core Reactivity Control for a Soluble Boron Free Small Modular Reactor

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:23050311

Kim, Hyeong Heon; Chung, Chang Kyu ^[1]; Yahya, Mohd-Syukri; Kim, Yonghee ^[2]

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1. KEPCO Engineering and Construction Company Inc., Gimcheon, Republic of Korea (Korea, Republic of)
2. Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea (Korea, Republic of)

Soluble boron has been used in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) to control the core excess reactivity in a uniform and stable way without distorting power distributions. It also enables current commercial PWRs to have high core power density. Despite its outstanding advantages, the soluble boron raises several significant concerns such as soluble boron-induced corrosion of structures, a large amount of liquid waste generation, and a possibility of positive moderator temperature coefficient (MTC) at high boron concentration. These concerns become more serious as the concentration of boron becomes higher. Therefore boron in the primary coolant has been a hindrance to the power uprate and cycle extension operation of PWRs. Currently a government-supported research project is underway to develop technologies for the soluble-boron-free (SBF) operation of a PWR-type small modular reactor (SMR). This paper presents preliminary results of the SBF SMR core reactivity control methods including optimization of burnable absorbers (BA) and control rod design, and development of secondary shutdown system (SSS)

• OSTI ID: 23050311
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 116; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BORON
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CORROSION
LIQUID WASTES
OPTIMIZATION
POWER DENSITY
POWER DISTRIBUTION
PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS
REACTOR DESIGN
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
SMALL MODULAR REACTORS
TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT