Sensitivity Analyses of Fast Reactor Systems Including Thorium and Uranium

Sensitivity Analyses of Fast Reactor Systems Including Thorium and Uranium
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1978
Genre:
ISBN:

The Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) has, in conjunction with the development of the fifth version of ENDF/B, assembled new evaluations for 232Th and 233U. It is the purpose of this paper to describe briefly some of the more important features of these evaluations relative to ENDF/B-4 to project the change in reactor performance based upon the newer evaluated files and sensitivity coefficients for interesting design problems, and to indicate preliminary results from ongoing uncertainty analyses.

Study of the Sensitivity of Calculations for Fast Reactors Fueled with P239-U238 and U233-Th to Uncertainties in Nuclear Data

Study of the Sensitivity of Calculations for Fast Reactors Fueled with P239-U238 and U233-Th to Uncertainties in Nuclear Data
Author: A. Gandini
Publisher:
Total Pages: 50
Release: 1962
Genre: Criticality (Nuclear engineering)
ISBN:

The effects of uncertainties of nuclear data on the calculation of integral quantities for some fast breeder systems were evaluated. The integral quantities chosen were reactivity, initial breeding ratio, and initial internal breeding ratio. The fuels chosen were plutonium-239-uranium-238, both as metal and oxide, and uranium-233-thorium as oxide. The importance of propagation of errors on the uncertainty in reactivity was determined. Results indicated that because of inaccuracies in the values of nuclear parameters as known within the present state of the art'' the deviations of the calculated reactivities should be about, and possib1y larger than, 2% DELTA k/k for all the medium and large systems considered. The deviation of the initial breading ratio is 3.5%, and for the initial internal breeding ratio it is about 5%. The consequent uncertainty in the calculated critical mass is of the order of 4%.

Feasibility Study on AFR-100 Fuel Conversion from Uranium-based Fuel to Thorium-based Fuel

Feasibility Study on AFR-100 Fuel Conversion from Uranium-based Fuel to Thorium-based Fuel
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

Although thorium has long been considered as an alternative to uranium-based fuels, most of the reactors built to-date have been fueled with uranium-based fuel with the exception of a few reactors. The decision to use uranium-based fuels was initially made based on the technology maturity compared to thorium-based fuels. As a result of this experience, lot of knowledge and data have been accumulated for uranium-based fuels that made it the predominant nuclear fuel type for extant nuclear power. However, following the recent concerns about the extent and availability of uranium resources, thorium-based fuels have regained significant interest worldwide. Thorium is more abundant than uranium and can be readily exploited in many countries and thus is now seen as a possible alternative. As thorium-based fuel technologies mature, fuel conversion from uranium to thorium is expected to become a major interest in both thermal and fast reactors. In this study the feasibility of fuel conversion in a fast reactor is assessed and several possible approaches are proposed. The analyses are performed using the Advanced Fast Reactor (AFR-100) design, a fast reactor core concept recently developed by ANL. The AFR-100 is a small 100 MW{sub e} reactor developed under the US-DOE program relying on innovative fast reactor technologies and advanced structural and cladding materials. It was designed to be inherently safe and offers sufficient margins with respect to the fuel melting temperature and the fuel-cladding eutectic temperature when using U-10Zr binary metal fuel. Thorium-based metal fuel was preferred to other thorium fuel forms because of its higher heavy metal density and it does not need to be alloyed with zirconium to reduce its radiation swelling. The various approaches explored cover the use of pure thorium fuel as well as the use of thorium mixed with transuranics (TRU). Sensitivity studies were performed for the different scenarios envisioned in order to determine the best core performance characteristics for each of them. With the exception of the fuel type and enrichment, the reference AFR-100 core design characteristics were kept unchanged, including the general core layout and dimensions, assembly dimensions, materials and power rating. In addition, the mass of 235U required was kept within a reasonable range from that of the reference AFR-100 design. The core performance characteristics, kinetics parameters and reactivity feedback coefficients were calculated using the ANL suite of fast reactor analysis code systems. Orifice design calculations and the steady-state thermal-hydraulic analyses were performed using the SE2-ANL code. The thermal margins were evaluated by comparing the peak temperatures to the design limits for parameters such as the fuel melting temperature and the fuel-cladding eutectic temperature. The inherent safety features of AFR-100 cores proposed were assessed using the integral reactivity parameters of the quasi-static reactivity balance analysis. The design objectives and requirements, the computation methods used as well as a description of the core concept are provided in Section 2. The three major approaches considered are introduced in Section 3 and the neutronics performances of those approaches are discussed in the same section. The orifice zoning strategies used and the steady-state thermal-hydraulic performance are provided in Section 4. The kinetics and reactivity coefficients, including the inherent safety characteristics, are provided in Section 5, and the Conclusions in Section 6. Other scenarios studied and sensitivity studies are provided in the Appendix section.

Thorium Fuel Cycle

Thorium Fuel Cycle
Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher:
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Provides a critical review of the thorium fuel cycle: potential benefits and challenges in the thorium fuel cycle, mainly based on the latest developments at the front end of the fuel cycle, applying thorium fuel cycle options, and at the back end of the thorium fuel cycle.

Energy Research Abstracts

Energy Research Abstracts
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1032
Release: 1994
Genre: Power resources
ISBN:

Semiannual, with semiannual and annual indexes. References to all scientific and technical literature coming from DOE, its laboratories, energy centers, and contractors. Includes all works deriving from DOE, other related government-sponsored information, and foreign nonnuclear information. Arranged under 39 categories, e.g., Biomedical sciences, basic studies; Biomedical sciences, applied studies; Health and safety; and Fusion energy. Entry gives bibliographical information and abstract. Corporate, author, subject, report number indexes.

Status of Fast Reactor Research and Technology Development

Status of Fast Reactor Research and Technology Development
Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Fast reactors
ISBN: 9781523130191

"Based on a recommendation from the Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors, this publication is a regular update of previous publications on fast reactor technology. The publication provides comprehensive and detailed information on the technology of fast neutron reactors. The focus is on practical issues that are useful to engineers, scientists, managers, university students and professors. The main issues of discussion are experience in design, construction, operation and decommissioning, various areas of research and development, engineering, safety and national strategies, and public acceptance of fast reactors. In the summary the reader will find national strategies, international initiatives on innovative (i.e. Generation IV) systems and an assessment of public acceptance as related to fast reactors."--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Handbook of Generation IV Nuclear Reactors

Handbook of Generation IV Nuclear Reactors
Author: Igor Pioro
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
Total Pages: 1112
Release: 2022-12-07
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0128226536

Handbook of Generation IV Nuclear Reactors, Second Edition is a fully revised and updated comprehensive resource on the latest research and advances in generation IV nuclear reactor concepts. Editor Igor Pioro and his team of expert contributors have updated every chapter to reflect advances in the field since the first edition published in 2016. The book teaches the reader about available technologies, future prospects and the feasibility of each concept presented, equipping them users with a strong skillset which they can apply to their own work and research. - Provides a fully updated, revised and comprehensive handbook dedicated entirely to generation IV nuclear reactors - Includes new trends and developments since the first publication, as well as brand new case studies and appendices - Covers the latest research, developments and design information surrounding generation IV nuclear reactors

Advances in Fast Reactor Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis

Advances in Fast Reactor Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1978
Genre:
ISBN:

A review of present methods and existing computer codes indicates an enormous capability not only to calculate sensitivity coefficients but also to apply them to a variety of purposes. However, there are still many limitations to our present capabilities. One of these limitations has been our inability to include in a complete and systematic way the effect of methods uncertainties on the determination of adjusted data, which depends, in general, not only on experimental measurements, but also on estimates of covariances associated with the measurements and the methods. Also, the uncertainty in adjusted data contains contributions from uncertainties in covariance estimates which contributions we have heretofore neglected. A new and comprehensive approach to include effects of methods uncertainties is presented here, and all sources which contribute to the uncertainty of the adjusted data are considered. This new approach is demonstrated using rough estimates for the methods uncertainties as applied to a simplified representation of the ZPR-6/7 fast benchmark. The results indicate that it may be essential to include methods uncertainties if integral experiments are to be used for the creation of adjusted nuclear data libraries. A careful evaluation of methods bias and uncertainties must still be performed.

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Nuclear Data for the Metallic-Fueled ABR-1000 Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Nuclear Data for the Metallic-Fueled ABR-1000 Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor
Author: Jun Shi
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

The 1000 MWt Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR-1000) is a concept of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) developed at Argonne National Laboratory for the study of future reactor designs under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program. It was investigated within the OECD/NEA Working Party on Reactor Systems (WPRS) under the Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor core Feed-back and Transient response (SFR-FT) task force benchmark, which was completed in 2014. The results revealed that different nuclear data libraries contribute to the large discrepancies in some calculated neutronic parameters. This task force is followed up by another on-going OECD/NEA WPRS activity entitled as SFR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (SFR-UAM). In order to further investigate the properties of the ABR core, the impact of nuclear data uncertainties on the performance of a SFR is analyzed in detail in this master thesis using a "Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty" (BEPU) approach along with the nuclear data from the ENDF/B-VII.1 library. Several computer codes, including MC2-3, TWODANT, DIF3D, REBUS-3, PERSENT, DPT, and SAS4A/SASSYS-1, were used in this study. Significant uncertainties on neutronic parameters (e.g., sodium density coefficient, sodium void coefficient, structure density coefficient, Doppler coefficient) are found due to nuclear data, but thanks to the excellent reactor design, the margins to sodium boiling and fuel melting during the accidents are still large even if these non-negligible nuclear data uncertainties are considered.