Abstract
An accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS) is a new nuclear energy system which could not only produce clean energy but also incinerate nuclear waste. In this paper, inherent safety analysis of an ADS is performed with neutronics and thermal-hydraulics coupled code named ARTAP. Five typical accidents are carried out, including the cases of proton beam interruption, transient overpower, reactivity insertion, loss of flow, and loss of heat sink. The transient simulations are performed in the average channel and the hottest channel of the fuel pin in the ADS core. The simulation results for beam interruption show that the highest temperature of the pellet is in the middle of the fuel element in the average channel, while the peak temperature of the cladding is in the top of the fuel element. After the beam is interrupted for 20s, the maximum temperature drops at the fuel center, the cladding inner surface, and the outlet coolant in the hottest channel are 644.46K, 162.27K, and 136.42K respectively. For transient overpower accidents with the increase of beam intensity, the maximum temperature of the fuel and the cladding are below the safety limit. Concerning the reactivity insertion accident, it is found that the ADS has good inherent safety and its margin of criticality safety is large. The calculation results for loss of flow show that the power drop is small due to low sensitivity of the subcritical core to negative reactivity feedback, and the maximum temperature of the cladding reaches 1726K, which means the fuel element would rupture. However, the power and the temperatures of fuel, cladding, and coolant could decrease quickly to the safety level after the proton accelerator is cut off under a loss of flow accident. The results also show that the peak temperature of the cladding is lower than the safety limit under a loss of heat sink accident. The present simulation results reveal that the ADS has a remarkable advantage against severe accidents. It also implies that its inherent safety characteristics could ensure reactor shutdown by cutting off the proton beam after accidents occur.
Highlights
Nuclear energy is the hope of sustainable energy growth all over the world
A developed computational code named ARTAP is applied in analysis of the inherent safety characteristics for the Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE)-cooled accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS), which comprises of a steady-state analysis module and a transient analysis module
Five typical accidents are carried out which include proton beam interruption, transient overpower, reactivity insertion, loss of flow, and loss of heat sink
Summary
An accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS) is a new nuclear energy system which could produce clean energy and incinerate actinide nuclides and long-lived radioactive fission products (Maschek et al, 2008). Conceptual designs of three types of eXperimental Accelerator Driven Systems (XADS) have been studied by the European Atomic Energy Community within its fifth framework program (Cinotti et al, 2004), which include a zero-power subcritical facility YALINA, a 80 MW Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) cooled XADS, and a 50 MW multi-purpose hybrid research reactor MYRRHA for high-tech applications. The China Leadbased Reactor (CLEAR) and the Chinese initiative Accelerator Driven Subcritical System (CiADS) were proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences for the transmutation of nuclear waste and sustainability of nuclear energy development (Wu, 2016; Huang et al, 2021). The conceptual design of a 10 MW LBE-cooled CLEAR has been completed, and a proton accelerator with 650 MHz multicell superconducting radio frequency (SRF) was proposed in the CiADS device
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