Abstract
This paper presents the core design and performance characteristics of a 300 MWt small modular reactor (SMR) with fuel assemblies of the AP1000 reactor. Numerical calculations have been performed to evaluate a proper active core size and core loading pattern using the SRAC code system with the JENDL-4.0 data library and the CORBRA-EN code. The calculated temperature coefficients including fuel temperature, coolant temperature, and isothermal temperature coefficient provide adequate negative reactivity feedbacks. The thermal-hydraulic analysis reveals acceptable radial and axial fuel element temperature profiles with significant safety margin of fuel and clad surface temperature. A safety analysis using the CORBRA-EN code shows that the core will remain covered during the entire transient procedure of the fast transient of remarkably increasing power that would be caused by the ejection of control rod. The analysis results indicate that the core with a cycle length of 2.22 years is achievable while satisfying the operation and safety-related design criteria with sufficient margins.
Highlights
In the recent years, the small modular reactors (SMRs), newgeneration reactors designed with an electrical output up to 300 MWe, have been received increasing attention within the nuclear energy community due to a number of advantages [1, 2]
One of the advantages is that the components of the reactor system can be fabricated at factories and transported modularly to the plant site for installation. It has greater scalability, and it is more flexible to choose locations for the SMRs than for the traditional large reactors. erefore, it would be a suitable solution for a wide range of users and applications, for instance, remote areas with small electricity demand, heating, or hydrogen production application [3, 4]. e SMRs are being developed for a number of principal reactors including advanced light water reactors, heavy water reactors, and the generation IV reactors such as hightemperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), liquid-metal, sodium, and gas-cooled fast reactors (LMFR, SFR, GFR), and molten salt reactors (MSRs) [5]
Three industrial demonstration SMRs are in construction including CAREM in Argentina, HTR-PM (HTGR) in China, and KLT-40S in Russia. e integral pressurized water reactor (IPWR) technology is one of the major near-term SMR designs, of which primary components are contained in the reactor vessel. e CAREM-25 reactor is an example of the IPWR technology. e CAREM-25, a prototype reactor with the power of 27 MWe, is under construction
Summary
The small modular reactors (SMRs), newgeneration reactors designed with an electrical output up to 300 MWe, have been received increasing attention within the nuclear energy community due to a number of advantages [1, 2]. One of the advantages is that the components of the reactor system can be fabricated at factories and transported modularly to the plant site for installation. It has greater scalability, and it is more flexible to choose locations for the SMRs than for the traditional large reactors. Other designs of IPWRs are SMART (Korea), NuScale (US), mPower (US), and Westinghouse SMR (US). e IPWR of the Westinghouse Electric Company is based on a partial-height 17 × 17
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