Inherent Protection of Plutonium by Doping Minor Actinide in Thermal Neutron Spectra

The present study focuses on the exploration of the effect of minor actinide (MA) addition into uranium oxide fuels of different enrichment (5% ²³⁵U and 20% ²³⁵U) as ways of increasing fraction of even-mass-number plutonium isotopes. Among plutonium isotopes, ²³⁸Pu, ²⁴⁰Pu and ²⁴²Pu have the characteristics of relatively high decay heat and spontaneous fission neutron rate that can improve proliferation-resistant properties of a plutonium composition. Two doping options were proposed, i.e. doping of all MA elements (Np, Am and Cm) and doping of only Np to observe their effect on plutonium proliferation-resistant properties. Pressurized water reactor geometry has been chosen for fuels irradiation environment where irradiation has been extended beyond critical to explore the subcritical system potential. Results indicate that a large amount of MA doping within subcritical operation highly improves the proliferation-resistant properties of the plutonium with high total plutonium production. Doping of 1% MA or Np into 5% ²³⁵U enriched uranium fuel appears possible for critical operation of the current commercial light water reactor with reasonable improvement in the plutonium proliferation-resistant properties.     

Evaluation of Proliferation Resistance of Plutonium Based on Decay Heat

The present paper is prepared for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Proliferation resistance of plutonium can be enhanced by increasing the decay heat of plutonium. For example, it can be enhanced by increasing the isotopic fraction of ²³⁸Pu, which has the largest decay heat among plutonium isotopes. In the present paper, the proliferation resistance of plutonium was evaluated based on decay heat with a physical assessment model. New criteria were proposed to evaluate the proliferation resistance based on isotopic compositions of plutonium from the viewpoint of decay heat. The present criteria were applied to evaluate the proliferation resistance of plutonium produced in typical Light Water Reactor and Fast Breeder Reactor based on an evaluation function “Attractiveness” as case studies.     

联动真空联锁保护控制系统研制

本工作研制国家同步辐射实验室U7站的3套联动真空联锁保护控制系统。研究给出了实现此联动系统的方法,实现了在3个共用前端区的线站之间的光纤通信,使整个系统的响应速度、可靠性及抗干扰能力均得到提高,系统的快阀响应时间最快可达8 ms。     

Decay Heat Calculations Based on Theoretical Estimation of Average Beta- and Gamma-Energies Released from Short-Lived Fission Products

Fission product decay heat of ²³⁵U was calculated for short cooling-time on the basis of a preliminary version of a new decay data library recently completed by the Japanese Nuclear Data Committee. It was shown that a full adoption of recent publications of decay schemes to derive average energies of β- and γ-rays, ē_β, and ē_γ, leads to a large underestimation of the γ-ray component of the decay heat and to an overestimation of the β-ray component. In order to remedy this, theoretical values of ē_β and ē_γ were introduced for high Q-value decays, which were obtained with a gross theory of β-decay. It improved remarkably the agreement between calculation and experiment not only for the ²³⁵U decay heat but for ²³⁹Pu and ²⁴¹Pu as well. It was concluded that a large part of decay schemes recently published for high Q-value nuclides are inappropriate to use in calculations of ē_β and ē_γ, because they fail to reproduce the effect of β- strengths at high excitations, which makes ē_β small and ē_γ large. The use of the gross theory introduces this effect correctly into the values of ē_β and ē_γ and, hence, leads to a quite good prediction of both β- and γ-ray components of the decay heat.     

基于衰变热的堆芯重要核素选取

衰变热在反应堆设计及安全分析中至关重要,目前计算衰变热主要基于行业标准和专用程序两种方法。通过对PWR燃料组件分别采用两种方法进行计算分析,相互验证了结果。详细分析了停堆不同时刻多种核素对衰变热的贡献,筛选出主要贡献者,为堆芯源项核素的选择提供参考。结果显示约50个核素即可包络停堆后100 h~50 a内95%以上的衰变热贡献。并对标准与程序结果的差异进行了分析,提出了标准适用范围的建议。     

基于衰变链计算的裂变产物缓发γ能谱分析

在军控核查技术中,缓发γ能谱是核材料的“指纹”。为计算和分析铀裂变产物的缓发γ能谱,本文将各种类型的衰变链简化为基态线性链和激发态线性链,推导了零时前后各级核素数目的变化公式,建构了计算缓发γ射线能谱的C语言程序代码,并通过实验对理论推导进行了验证。通过分析几种核素的缓发γ射线计数发现,计算结果与实验数据吻合较好。     

Basic evaluation on material attractiveness of isotopic plutonium barrier

Material attractiveness evaluations based on isotopic Plutonium barrier compositions have been investigated for evaluating intrinsic features of proliferation resistance such as decay heat (DH), spontaneous fission neutron (SFN), as well as attractiveness concepts of figure of merit (FOM) and “attractiveness” (ATTR) as a function of diluted fraction of even mass Plutonium to Pu-239 composition. The DH and SFN compositions increase significantly with increasing diluted fraction of even mass Plutonium, except for DH of Pu-242. It shows that diluted fraction of Pu-238 contributes most significantly to the DH ad SFN compositions at certain diluted fractions. Only diluted fraction of Pu-238 can reach a DH composition level of MOX fuel for small diluted fraction and an SFN level of MOX fuel can be reached by all diluted fractions of even mass Plutonium. It requires more than 80% of diluted Pu-238 fraction to achieve a low material attractiveness based on FOM1 formula and there is no available diluted fraction for Pu-240 and Pu-242 for reaching it. It is easier to reach a low material attractiveness by using FOM2 than that of FOM1 caused by additional contribution of the SFN component, as well as ATTR, which also considers both DH and SFN components. The material attractiveness of FOM2 and ATTR as a function of diluted even mass Plutonium fractions are shown in similar trend, which requires some diluted fraction depending on even mass Plutonium for achieving low material attractiveness of FOM 2 and practically unusable level of ATTR.