Comparison of HEU and LEU Fuel Neutron Spectrum for ATR Fuel Element and ATR Flux-Trap Positions
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a high power and high neutron flux research reactor operating in the United States. Powered with highly enriched uranium (HEU), the ATR has a maximum thermal power rating of 250 MWth. Because of the high total core power and high neutron flux, the ATR is an ideal candidate for assessing the feasibility of converting an HEU driven reactor to a low-enriched core. An optimized low-enriched uranium (LEU) (U-10Mo) core conversion case, which can meet the project requirements, has been selected. However, LEU contains a significant quantity of high density U-238 (80.3 wt.%), which will harden the neutron spectrum in the core region. Based on the reference ATR HEU and the optimized LEU full core plate-by-plate (PBP) models, the present work investigates and compares the neutron spectra differences in the fuel element (FE), Northeast flux trap (NEFT), Southeast flux trap (SEFT), and East flux trap (EFT) positions. A detailed PBP MCNP ATR core model was developed and validated for fuel cycle burnup comparison analysis. The current ATR core with HEU U 235 enrichment of 93.0wt.% was used as the reference model. Each HEU fuel element contains 19 fuel plates with a fuel meat thickness of 0.508 mm (20 mil). In this work, an optimized LEU (U-10Mo) core conversion case with a nominal fuel meat thickness of 0.330 mm (13 mil) and the U-235 enrichment of 19.7 wt.% was used to calculate the impact of the neutron spectrum in FE and FT positions. MCNP-calculated results show that the neutron spectrum in the LEU FE is slightly harder than in the HEU FE, as expected. However, when neutrons transport through water coolant and beryllium (Be), the neutrons are thermalized to an equilibrium neutron spectrum as a function of water volume fraction in the investigated FT positions. As a result, the neutron spectrum differences of the HEU and LEU in the NEFT, SEFT, and EFT are negligible. To demonstrate that the LEU core fuel cycle performance can meet the Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR) safety requirements, additional studies will be necessary to evaluate and compare safety parameters such as void reactivity and Doppler coefficients, control components worth (outer shim control cylinders, safety rods and regulating rod), and shutdown margins between the HEU and LEU cores.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1010685
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-08-14533; TRN: US1101957
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: RERTR 2008 International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors,Washington D.C.,10/05/2008,10/09/2008
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BERYLLIUM
BURNUP
DOPPLER COEFFICIENT
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL PLATES
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
NEUTRON FLUX
NEUTRON SPECTRA
NEUTRONS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
RESEARCH REACTORS
SAFETY ANALYSIS
SCRAM RODS
SHUTDOWN
TEST REACTORS
THICKNESS
URANIUM
WATER
FUEL NEUTRON SPECTRUM
HEU
LEU