A Neutronic Evaluation of the HTR-10 Using Scale, MCNPX and MCNP5 Nuclear Codes

Abstract

The HTR-10 (High Temperature Gas-cooled Test Reactor) is a 10 MW modular pebble bed type reactor, built by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology (INET), Tsinghua University, China. As an advanced reactor, it has good passive safety characteristics: capacity of retaining all fission products inside the coated particles (up to 1,600° C), passive decay heat removal, large heat capacity of the core to mitigate temperature transition, large fuel temperature margin and negative temperature reactivity coefficient sufficient to accommodate reactivity insertion and small amount of excess reactivity in the core. This reactor, which core is filled with 27,000 spherical fuel elements, e.g. TRISO coated particles, is used to test and develop fuel, verify PBR safety features, demonstrate combined electricity production and cogeneration of heat, and provide experience in PBR design, operation and construction. Using the SCALE 6.0 (Standardized Computer Analysis for Licensing Evaluation), the MCNPX 2.6.0 (Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended) and the MCNP 5 (Monte Carlo N-Particle) nuclear codes, the HTR-10 first critical core described in the Evaluation of The Initial Critical Configuration of The HTR-10 Pebble-Bed Reactor was modeled and analyzed. A three-dimension model was simulated and the keff was obtained and compared with the reference. The result presents good agreement with experimental value. The goal is to validate the DEN/UFMG model to be applied in transmutation studies changing the fuel.