Online inventory modeling of a CANDU-6 reactor for nuclear forensic applications

Abstract

To develop the expected isotopic signatures of online nuclear power plants, a CANDU-6 quarter-core reactor was modeled using Serpent, a Monte Carlo and Burnup code. The reactor model was simulated using nominal operating parameters, steady power levels and standard refueling procedures, to set the baseline for online operations. The model was burned for 500 refuelings totaling 1400 effective full power days. The core was divided into 1140 spatially-discrete fuel bundles with each tracking the density of 237 isotopes. Instantaneous core inventory snapshots were recorded at the time of each refueling to create a continuous inventory database. These snapshots provide the expected isotopic densities and ratios for virtually any fuel bundle position or burnup under nominal operating parameters. These values are useful in the event of accidents, short-cycles, or nuclear proliferation. The time-dependent and spatially dependent results for xenon effluent are used to develop an analytical method for calculating the expected International Monitoring System xenon ratio measurements based on fuel bundle leak rates. A possible false-positive nuclear proliferation scenario for a CANDU-6 operating under nominal parameters is also identified.