Characterization of neutronic parameters and radiation shielding design for an aqueous homogeneous reactor

Abstract

In this research, an aqueous homogeneous reactor is simulated and its neutronic parameters are investigated. Due to the negative reactivity caused by temperature change and void formation, the cold excess reactivity is considered equal to 4 βeff. Also, calculations of radiation shielding and neutronic characterization of the reactor are performed. For different heights of uranyl sulfate fuel, the effective multiplication factor (keff) of the reactor is calculated under cold zero power and hot full power conditions to assess the required excess reactivity. The amount of fuel burnup and changes in the keff are investigated for 500 days, finally 200 operating days are chosen as the working duration of the reactor. The control rods worth (CRW) for different diameters of boron carbid and reactor safety parameters including shot down margin (SDM) and safety reactivity factor (SRF), temperature and void coefficients of reactivity are analyzed. In order to design a suitable radiation shield for this reactor, two different shields are considered. The first shield is a combination of polyethylene thicknesses and barite concrete, and the second shield is made only of barite concrete. The total thickness of the first and second shield was 230 and 180 cm, respectively. Due to the problems of using polyethylene (e.g. problems related to machining, shield dimensions and low melting temperature), the second shield is chosen as the suitable radiation shield for this reactor. Using this radiation shield, the total dose rates of neutron and gamma rays satisfy the ICRP dose limits.