Establishment and evaluation of mixed refueling scheme for M2LFR-1000 core

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) is one important candidate for the advanced reactors for future sustainable energy supply due to its excellent inherent safety and economic characteristics. The fuel management scheme of LFR affects application potentials and fuel cycle scheme of the entire nuclear system. In order to research the establishment and evaluation of the mixed refueling scheme for LFR, a mixed refueling scheme was adopted and established in this paper for the core of 1000MWth Medium-power Modular Lead-cooled Fast Reactor M2LFR-1000. The neutronic performance analysis was conducted from the first cycle to the equilibrium cycle by using the neutronics analysis code SRAC. The calculation results showed that an acceptable fuel management scheme for LFR was obtained. The cycle length of this scheme can reach 18 months and the radial assembly power peaking factors of the first six cycles are all below the design limits. Evaluations of other important neutronic parameters also proved that this mixed refueling scheme could be applied to the M2LFR-1000 core.