Investigation of the power peaking factor Kr in the fuel assembly during the maneuvering mode of the VVER-1000 reactor

Abstract

The aim of this thesis paper is to analysis the power peaking factors Kr of the VVER-1000 reactor. Power peaking factor is important for the safety operation of the VVER-1000 power reactor. The maintenance of the core power distribution in a nuclear power plant is a precondition for the safety operation of a reactor. In this investigation used boron carbide. Boron carbide is a compound that contains boron and carbon, especially B4C; an extremely hard, non-metallic, black crystalline compound or solid solution. Only diamond is harder. In addition to its hardness property, boron carbide has the physical properties of corrosion resistance, heat strength, low specific gravity and high elastic modulus. It is used as an abrasive, neutron absorber for nuclear reactors, and as an alloying agent in composite structural materials. For this reason, when need to change the power of a reactor then the boron carbide (B4C) control insert the reactor core. In this step investigated the power picking factors and its deviation using the Boron carbide (B4C). Power peaking factors are connecting between the thermal-hydraulics and the nutronics of the nuclear power plant core. This power peaking factors was calculated by the comprehensive nutronics calculation program GETERA-93.