Neutronics Analysis of SMART Reactor Fuel Cell and Fuel Assemblies with Two Absorber Materials: Gd2O3 – UO2 and Al2O3 – B4C Using SRAC Code and JENDL 3.3 and 4.0 Data Libraries

Abstract

The SMART is a small modular nuclear reactor which has been developed by South Korea’s KAERI, utilizes 4.95% enriched uranium fuel and two types of absorber materials: Gd2O3 - UO2 and Al2O3 - B4C. This research focuses on the neutronic analysis of SMART at the fuel cell and fuel assembly levels using SRAC 2006 with JENDL 3.3 and 4.0 Nuclear Data Libraries. The study aims to compare the neutronic performance of the SMART fuel assembly using these two absorber materials. At the fuel level, three types of enrichment are considered: 2.82%, 3.25%, and 4.95%. Meanwhile, at the fuel assembly level, three types (A, B, and C) are investigated, based on the composition of fuel rods and absorber material rods. The results indicate that the SMART reactor with the KAERI design (enrichment of 4.95% and 3 types of fuel assemblies) can maintain critical conditions for 990 days (equivalent to 3 years) of operation for small modular reactor types. The two types of absorber materials are effective in absorbing excess positive reactivity from the fuel effectively. The use of absorbing materials greatly determines the neutronic characteristics and costs in the construction of nuclear reactors, It can be compared that using 2 absorbing materials can reduce the value of the effective multiplication factor and the infinitive neutron production in the core compared to using 1 absorbing material.