Abstract
During recent years, a new generation of nuclear reactors, known as “Accelerator Driven Subcritical Reactors”, has been developed. One of the new application aspects for such reactors (besides transmutation of High Level Waste and burning Minor Actinides) is usage of thorium as nuclear fuel. In this work a subcritical core in experimental scale is simulated by MCNPX code. The core contains two types of fuel assemblies: (85% ThO2 + 15% UO2) and MOX (U-Pu). In the first step, only the thorium-contained fuel assemblies are loaded into the core. Criticality calculations using MCNPX show that the keff is so low that the fuel assemblies cannot run the subcritical core. This implies that MOX (U-Pu) assemblies must be loaded as well. Neutronic parameters of the thorium- fueled Accelerator Driven Subcritical core are then calculated as well as some other parameters related to accelerator coupled with the core. The main objective of this simulation is to study the behavior of Accelerator Driven Subcritical core with thorium assemblies.
Highlights
Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) attract worldwide attention owing to their superior aspects and their ability to burn Minor Actinides (MA) and fission products in conjunction to their ability to transmute HLW and to produce energy
Thorium has several advantages as a nuclear fuel: It produces less of the nuclear by-products normally used to make nuclear weapons and less of the long-lived radioactive products of conventional nuclear power Its uses in suitable nuclear reactors can reduce the hazard of nuclear accidents unlike natural uranium, Its energy content can be used almost in its entirety, and thorium ore
All AD systems consist of three main components: a Subcritical Core (SC), a spallation targets (ST) and an accelerator coupled with SC
Summary
Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) attract worldwide attention owing to their superior aspects and their ability to burn Minor Actinides (MA) and fission products in conjunction to their ability to transmute HLW and to produce energy. (2015) Simulation of an Accelerator Driven Subcritical Core with Mixed Uranium-Thorium Fuel. All AD systems consist of three main components: a Subcritical Core (SC), a spallation targets (ST) and an accelerator coupled with SC. No control rod is used in these systems; instead, a proton beam from the accelerator coupled with SC controls and handles the core. This implies that the safety of the ADS basically depends on the function of the accelerator [2]-[4]. The core includes a cylindrical accelerator driven subcritical system loaded with (85% ThO2 + 15% UO2) and MOX (U-Pu) fuel assemblies.
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