Abstract
Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) remain a potential candidate to meet future energy needs. In addition, the SFRs experimental feedback is considerable, for instance, the French research program has considered experimental facilities including the Superphénix which has emerged as a transition to commercial deployment. In this paper a set of tests from the Superphénix start-up are reanalyzed with new tools, considering APOLLO-3 and TRIPOLI-4 (respectively deterministic and stochastic codes) for neutron physics evaluation, GERMINAL-V2 for the fuel irradiation behavior and CATHARE-3 for the thermal-hydraulics modelling. Neutron physics evaluations are performed for the main control rod worth and the Doppler Effect, both measured under isothermal conditions at Superphénix start-up. A good agreement is obtained for these tests, which were purely neutronic tests. Next, the core temperature distribution is evaluated at nominal conditions, where larger discrepancies are observed. However, these deviations are related to the measurement of the fuel assemblies, which have a larger than expected uncertainty. Finally a transient, consisting of a negative reactivity insertion, is analyzed to assess the dynamic core behavior. A good agreement is obtained during the reactivity insertion, however the thermal-hydraulic model has to be improved, namely the vessel model, which is considered as a 0-D volume.
Highlights
The development of nuclear energy considers various concepts and prototypes to be deployed in the incoming decades as a solution to the current challenges
This paper considers a set of the Superphénix start-up tests at isothermal state and at power conditions, in particular the following tests, to end with the NRI test: x Control rod worth x Doppler constant x Nominal power temperature distribution and x Negative Reactivity Insertion (NRI)
The control rod worth was measured in the CMP (Superphénix start-up core, Cœur de Montée en Puissance in French), recording the measured count rates of the DIMEP-B assembly and translating them into reactivity through the Modified Source Multiplication (MSM) Method
Summary
The development of nuclear energy considers various concepts and prototypes to be deployed in the incoming decades as a solution to the current challenges. Six different candidates stand out for their promising performance, among them, the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is an outstanding concept with considerable experimental feedback. Various countries have committed themselves to the development of SFR, in particular France. In the course of its research and development program it has considered three facilities with different objectives: Rapsodie, Phénix and Superphénix. Superphénix was designed with a commercial approach to serve as a transition design from experimental facilities towards an SFR commercial deployment [1]. Different power conditions were considered for the core, starting from isothermal conditions (zero-power conditions) to power conditions (obtained by a progressive increase in power). Different tests were performed, for instance the dynamic core behavior was evaluated by a transient test
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