Transposition of fuel and blanket assemblies in LMFBR'S

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1977

OSTI ID:7096029

Doncals, R A; Paik, N C; Dickson, P W

The objective of this paper is to show how the transposition of selected fuel assemblies in a homogeneous core arrangement with blanket assemblies results in a core with superior plutonium breeding characteristics and potentially improved response to hypothetical accident transients which are not terminated by the plant protection systems. To accomplish this objective, a detailed comparison is made of the physics, breeding and inventory differences of a homogeneous and a heterogeneous core arrangement for reactor power levels of approximately 1000 and 2500 MW(t). This power range was chosen to determine if the heterogeneous core concept is applicable to commercial as well as demonstration size LMFBR plants. The initial heterogeneous (bull's-eye) study was performed for the 1000 MWt size reactor. The fuel pin diameter was limited to 0.23 inches (FFTF technology). Considerable optimizations were performed which showed that the number of required fuel and control assemblies in the heterogeneous design could be reduced relative to the homogeneous concept. This study has demonstrated the feasibility of taking a homogeneous core arrangement and replacing it with a heterogeneous core without increasing the inside diameter of the reactor vessel. The resultant optimum heterogeneous core arrangement resulted in a breeding ratio which was higher by 0.1 relative to the homogeneous concept with a resultant reduction in compound system doubling time from 62 to 32 years.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Electric Corp., Madison, PA (USA). Advanced Reactors Div.
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-15-2395
• OSTI ID: 7096029
• Report Number(s): CONF-770611-17
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500* -- Power Reactors
Breeding
BREEDER REACTORS
BREEDING BLANKETS
BREEDING RATIO
CONFIGURATION
CONVERSION RATIO
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR CORES
REACTORS