Abstract
This study is focused on defining and optimizing the design parameters of inherently safe “battery” type sodium-cooled metallic-fueled nuclear reactor cores that operate on a single stationary fuel loading at full power for 30 years. A total of 29 core designs were developed with varying power and flow conditions, including detailed thermal-hydraulic, structural-mechanical and neutronic analysis. Given set constraints for irradiation damage, primary cycle pressure drop and inherent safety considerations, the attainable power range and performance characteristics of the systems are defined. The optimum power level for a core with a coolant pressure drop limit of 100 kPa and an irradiation damage limit of 200 DPA (displacements per atom) is found to be 100 MWt/40 MWe. Raising the power level of an optimized core gives significantly higher attainable power densities and burnup, but severely decreases safety margins and increases the irradiation damage. A fully optimized inherently safe battery-type fast reactor core with an active height and diameter of 150 cm (2.6 m3), a pressure drop limit of 100 kPa and an irradiation damage limit of 300 DPA can be designed to operate at 150 MWt/60 MWe for 30 years, reaching an average discharge burnup of 100 MWd/kg-actinide.
Highlights
A wide array of technology options for nuclear reactor systems exist, with the main parameters determining system characteristics being the physical size, power level, primary and secondary coolant and type of fuel
The optimum enrichment level depends on core-specific parameters, but simulation results performed in this study indicate that it is not above 13% 235U for any uranium-fueled system
The peak quasi-static fuel and coolant temperatures were calculated for all cores for each of the seven possible isolated events presented; unprotected loss of flow event (ULOF), unprotected transient overpower (UTOP), unprotected loss of heat sink event (ULOHS), unprotected chilled inlet scenario (UCI), unprotected pump overspeed scenario (UPPO)
Summary
A wide array of technology options for nuclear reactor systems exist, with the main parameters determining system characteristics being the physical size, power level, primary and secondary coolant and type of fuel. Much of the focus of commercial reactor vendors and national programs has switched to the development of Small Modular (thermal) Reactors (SMR). The only information flow paths across the reactor boundary are the primary flow rate (F) that is controlled by pumps, the coolant inlet temperature (Tin), affected by the operation of the secondary coolant system, and an externally introduced reactivity insertion (ρext). Given these three general ways to affect the state of a reactor core, a total of six potential scenarios can be analyzed: 1.
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