MCNPX Monte Carlo burnup simulations of the isotope correlation experiments in the NPP Obrigheim

This paper describes the simulation work of the Isotope Correlation Experiment (ICE) using the MCNPX Monte Carlo computer code package. The Monte Carlo simulation results are compared with the ICE-Experimental measurements for burnup up to 30 GWD/t. The comparison shows the good capabilities of the MCNPX computer code package for predicting the depletion of the uranium fuel and the buildup of the plutonium isotopes in a PWR thermal reactor. The Monte Carlo simulation results show also good agreements with the experimental data for calculating several long-lived and stable fission products. However, for the americium and curium actinides, it is difficult to judge the predication capabilities for these actinides due to the large uncertainties in the ICE-Experimental data. In the MCNPX numerical simulations, a pin cell model is utilized to simulate the fuel lattice of the nuclear power reactor. Temperature dependent libraries based on JEFF3.1 nuclear data files are utilized for the calculations. In addition, temperature dependent libraries based ENDF/B-VII nuclear data files are utilized and the obtained results are very close to the JEFF3.1 results, except for ∼10% differences in the prediction of the minor actinide isotopes buildup.     

燃耗信任制下燃耗计算对临界计算的偏差及不确定度的研究

为量化燃耗信任制中燃耗计算传递给临界计算的不确定度,本文基于参数统计法对燃耗计算的核素偏差及偏差不确定度展开分析,并以蒙特卡罗（MC）抽样方法计算的kinf不确定度为基准,比较不同抽样方法对临界计算不确定度的影响。结果表明,核素偏差与偏差不确定度是随样品燃耗变化的分段函数。对于临界计算,拉丁超立方抽样（LHS）方法与MC抽样方法的kinf不确定度计算结果吻合较好,且LHS方法可考虑参数间的相关性,计算结果更真实,可进一步提升电厂的经济性。     

Reactivity and neutron emission measurements of highly burnt PWR fuel rod samples

Fuel rods with burnup values beyond 50 GWd/t are characterised by relatively large amounts of fission products and a high abundance of major and minor actinides. Of particular interest is the change in the reactivity of the fuel as a function of burnup and the capability of modern codes to predict this change. In addition, the neutron emission from burnt fuel has important implications for the design of transport and storage facilities. Measurements have been made of the reactivity effects and the neutron emission rates of highly burnt uranium oxide and mixed oxide fuel rod samples coming from a pressurised water reactor (PWR). The reactivity measurements have been made in a PWR lattice in the PROTEUS zero-energy reactor moderated in turn with: water, a water and heavy water mixture and water containing boron. A combined transport flask and sample changer was used to insert the 400 mm long burnt fuel rod segments into the reactor. Both control rod compensation and reactor period methods were used to determine the reactivities of the samples. For the range of burnup values investigated, an interesting exponential relationship has been found between the neutron emission rate and the measured reactivity.     

Calculation of fuel burnup and radionuclide inventory in the Syrian miniature neutron source reactor using the GETERA code

Calculations of the fuel burnup and radionuclide inventory in the Syrian miniature neutron source reactor (MNSR) after 10 years (the reactor core expected life) of the reactor operation time are presented in this paper using the GETERA code. The code is used to calculate the fuel group constants and the infinite multiplication factor versus the reactor operating time for 10, 20, and 30 kW operating power levels. The amounts of uranium burntup and plutonium produced in the reactor core, the concentrations and radionuclides of the most important fission products and actinide radionuclides accumulated in the reactor core, and the total radioactivity of the reactor core were calculated using the GETERA code as well. It is found that the GETERA code is better than the WIMSD4 code for the fuel burnup calculation in the MNSR reactor since it is newer, has a bigger library of isotopes, and is more accurate.     

Estimation of Spent Fuel Compositions from Light Water Reactors

The compositions and quantities of minor actinide (MA) and fission product (FP) in spent fuels will be diversified with the use of high discharged burnup fuels and MOX fuels in LWRs which will be a main part of power reactors in future.

In order to investigate above diversities, we have studied on the calculation method to be used in the estimation of spent fuel compositions and adopted the real irradiation calculation in which axial burnup and moderator distribution are considered in the burnup calculation.

On the basis of the calculations, compositions and burnup quantities of various LWR spent fuels (reactor type: PWR and BWR, discharged burnup: 33, 45 and 60 GWd/tHM, fuel type: U0₂ and MOX) are apparently estimated among various forms of fuels. As an example, it is shown that there are considerable discrepancy in MA burnup between PWR and BWR spent fuels.     

A fusion–fission hybrid reactor with water-cooled pressure tube blanket for energy production

A fusion–fission hybrid reactor is proposed to achieve the energy gain of 3000 MW thermal power with self-sustaining tritium. The hybrid reactor is designed based on the plasma conditions and configurations of ITER, as well as the well-developed pressurized light water cooling technologies. For the sake of safety, the pressure tube bundles are employed to protect the first wall from the high pressure of coolant. The spent nuclear fuel discharged from 33GWD/tU Light Water Reactors (LWRs) and natural uranium oxide are taken as driver fuel for energy multiplication. According to thermo-mechanics calculation results, the first wall of 20 mm is safe. The radiation damage analysis indicates that the first wall has a lifetime of more than five years. Neutronics calculations show that the proposed hybrid reactor has high energy multiplication factor, tritium breeding ratio and power density; the fuel cannot reach the level of plutonium required for a nuclear weapon. Thermal-hydraulic analysis indicates that the temperatures of the fuel zone are well below the limited values and a large safety margin is provided.     

后处理厂释放气体中稳定惰性气体同位素在核保障监督中的应用研究

用Origen2．1计算模式对压水堆元件中Kr,Xe相关同位素与燃耗的关系进行了计算,并估算了后处理厂烟囱释放气体中Kr,Xe各稳定同位素的来源,丰度和原子浓度.^82Kr,^129Xe可用作环境样品中惰性气体同位素的天然本底;裂片^83Kr／^86Kr．^84Kr／^86Kr、^131Xe／^134Xe和^132Xe／^134Xe的丰度比值,可用于指示乏燃料燃耗,进而估算正在被分离的钚同位素组成,并有可能对后处理厂实行保障监督。     

基于cosRMC的新一代PWR栅元和组件燃耗计算

新一代压水堆与现有压水堆的重要区别之一是燃料富集度不同,考虑到燃料制造、燃料燃耗等问题,目前压水堆的UO₂燃料富集度通常小于5%,MOX燃料中易裂变Pu含量通常小于6%。新一代压水堆的燃料富集度有可能超过现有标准,平均燃耗有望达到70 GW•d/tU,这对反应堆计算软件提出了新的要求。本文基于反应堆蒙特卡罗程序cosRMC对新一代压水堆栅元和组件基准进行了中子学分析,包括裂变反应率分布、中子通量密度分布及核子密度随燃耗的变化等,并对含Gd棒的组件燃耗计算进行了细致分析。计算结果表明,cosRMC的计算结果与国际上其他程序的计算结果符合较好。通过程序之间结果对比发现,随着燃耗的增加,不同程序计算的Pu含量差别变大。     

Development of an MCNP-tally based burnup code and validation through PWR benchmark exercises

The aim of this study is to evaluate the capabilities of a newly developed burnup code called BUCAL1. The code provides the full capabilities of the Monte Carlo code MCNP5, through the use of the MCNP tally information. BUCAL1 uses the fourth order Runge Kutta method with the predictor–corrector approach as the integration method to determine the fuel composition at a desired burnup step. Validation of BUCAL1 was done by code vs. code comparison. Results of two different kinds of codes are employed. The first one is CASMO-4, a deterministic multi-group two-dimensional transport code. The second kind is MCODE and MOCUP, a link MCNP–ORIGEN codes. These codes use different burnup algorithms to solve the depletion equations system. Eigenvalue and isotope concentrations were compared for two PWR uranium and thorium benchmark exercises at cold (300 K) and hot (900 K) conditions, respectively. The eigenvalue comparison between BUCAL1 and the aforementioned two kinds of codes shows a good prediction of the systems’ k-inf values during the entire burnup history, and the maximum difference is within 2%. The differences between the BUCAL1 isotope concentrations and the predictions of CASMO-4, MCODE and MOCUP are generally better, and only for a few sets of isotopes these differences exceed 10%.     

Time dependent burn-up and fission products inventory calculations in the discharged fuel of the Syrian MNSR

The Syrian Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR), a 30 kW, 89.8% HEU fueled (U-Al), went critical in March, 1996. By operating the reactor at nominal power for 2.5 h/day, the estimated core life is 10 years. This paper presents the results of fuel burn-up and depletion analysis of the MNSR fuel lattice using the ORIGEN 2 code. A one-group cross-section data base for the ORIGEN 2 computer code was developed for the Syrian MNSR research reactor. The ORIGEN 2 predicted burn-up dependent actinide compositions of MNSR spent fuel using the newly developed data base show a good agreement with the published results in the literature. In addition, the burn-up characteristics of MNSR spent fuel was analyzed with the new data base. Finally, to study the effect of burn-up on the reactivity, the microscopic cross-sections of the fission products calculated by the WlMS code (using the number densities of fission products generated by the ORIGEN 2 code as a function of burn-up time), were used as an input for the CITATION code calculations. The results contained in this paper could be used in performing criticality safety analysis and shielding calculations for the design of a spent fuel storage cask for the MNSR core.     

Determination of the Fuel-Assembly Burnup in a Research Reactor by Repeated Short-Time Irradiation Followed by γ Spectrometric Measurements

Experiments performed to determine the absolute fuel burnup in spent fuel assemblies in the IRT research reactor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute are described. The method is based on measuring the residual amount of ²³⁵U in the spent fuel asemblies with respect to the activity of the fission product ¹⁴⁰La accumulated in fresh and spent fuel assemblies after they were irradiated for a short time in the reactor core. A fresh fuel assembly with known uranium mass was used as a standard. The neutron flux was monitored using Al + Cu and Al + Co wires placed at the center of the fuel assembly. Small corrections for the difference in the spectrum amd the flux density of the neutrons in fuel assemblies with different uranium content were obtained from the calculations. The burnup of the three fuel assemblies studied was determined to within less than 2%.     

Modeling and criticality evaluation of the voloxidation process

Voloxidation is a necessary process in the dry reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels. The criticality evaluation plays a considerable role in the design of voloxidation apparatus. As conservative results are always preferred in a criticality evaluation, an optimized model was built in consideration of both the geometry of voloxidation apparatus and the occurring forms of evaluation material. The criticality evaluation of fresh UO₂ fuel and PWR spent fuel were then performed by employing Monte Carlo techniques, respectively. It is demonstrated that there is no criticality risk concerning the voloxidation process dealing with fresh UO₂ or PWR spent fuel if water does not intrude into the cell. However, if water intrudes and mixes with the fuels, the subcritical mass limit is 40.1 ± 0.1 kg for fresh UO₂ and 19,155 ± 50 kg for spent fuel. The contributions of ¹H and ²³⁵U were analyzed quantitatively by the TSUNAMI code to clarify the competition between ¹H moderation effect and its dilution effect on the concentration of ²³⁵U.     

Criticality calculations of spent fuel in deep geological repository

Criticality calculations have been performed for a typical spent fuel disposal canister model filled with PWR fuel elements. Geometric and material properties of the disposal canister and disposal holes were modeled based on the Swedish preliminary disposal concept. Direct disposal of 5% enriched 16 × 16 PWR fuel was considered. We performed the calculations of the neutron multiplication factor using various disposal configurations, depending on the initial enrichment, fuel burnup, canister geometry and disposal holes configuration. The results showed that under normal conditions, when the canister is filled with fresh spent nuclear fuel, the system is deeply sub-critical. If it is assumed that the canister is faulty, leaking and filled with ground water, the system may become critical in the case of fresh fuel.     

CANDU堆应用RU的PWR/CANDU联合核燃料循环的研究

对压水堆乏燃料后处理回收铀（RU)在秦山三期CANDU堆中应用的可行性和经济性进行分析。使用ORIGEN2程序．对后处理回收铀在生产后放置不同时间后核素的成份和放射性活度进行了计算。证明RU燃料元件生产的放射性水平是可以接受的。使用DRAGON／DONJON程序对应用RU的秦山三期CANDU堆的时均堆芯和瞬时堆芯校验分析表明：采用简单的2燃耗区，2、4棒束的换料方案能满足最大通道功率、最大棒束功率限制。通过放射性分析和堆芯物理分析可以看出，秦山三期CANDU堆在不改变堆芯结构及运行模式的条件下，从天然铀(NU)燃料过渡到RU燃料是可行的。通过对秦山三期CANDU堆应用RU的经济性分析，可以看出PWR／CANDU联合核燃料循环的策略既可节约铀资源(23％)，提高燃料的能量输出(4l％)．又减少了废燃料的处置量(66％)．可大大降低核电成本。     

Nitration by a simulated fuel technique for nitride fuel re-fabrication

Nitration reaction of a spent nuclear oxide fuel through a carbothermic reduction and the change in thermal conductivity of the resultant nitride specimens were investigated by a simulated fuel technique for use in nitride fuel re-fabrication from spent oxide fuel. The simulated spent oxide fuel was formed by compacting and sintering a powder mixture of UO₂ and stable oxide fission product impurities. It was pulverized by a 3-cycle successive oxidation-reduction treatment and converted into nitride pellet specimens through the carbothermic reduction. The rate of the nitration reaction of the simulated spent oxide fuel was decreased due to the fission product impurities when compared with pure uranium dioxide. The amount of Ba and Sr in the simulated spent oxide fuel was considerably reduced after the nitride fuel re-fabrication. The thermal conductivity of the nitride pellet specimen in the range 295-373 K was lower than that of the pure uranium nitride but higher than the simulated spent oxide fuel containing fission product impurities.     

Impact of PWR spent fuel variations on back-end features of advanced fuel cycles with tru-fueled VHTR

Alternative strategies are being considered as management option for current spent nuclear fuel transuranics (TRU) inventory. Creation of transmutation fuels containing TRU for use in thermal and fast reactors is one of the viable strategies. Utilization of these advanced fuels will result in transmutation and incineration of the TRU. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of conventional PWR spent fuel variations on TRU-fueled very high temperature reactor (VHTR) systems. The current effort is focused on prismatic core configuration operated under a single batch once-through fuel cycle option. IAEA’s nuclear fuel cycle simulation system (VISTA) was used to determine potential PWR spent fuel compositions. Additional composition was determined from the analysis of United States legacy spent fuel that is given in the Yucca Mountain Safety Assessment Report. A detailed whole-core 3-D model of the prismatic VHTR was developed using SCALE5.1 code system. The fuel assembly block model was based on Japan’s HTTR fuel block configuration. To establish a reference reactor system, calculations for LEU-fueled VHTR were performed and the results were used as the basis for comparative studies of the TRU-fueled systems. The LEU fuel is uranium oxide at 15% ²³⁵U enrichment. The results showed that the single-batch core lifetimes ranged between 5 and 7 years for all TRU fuels (3 years in LEU), providing prolonged operation on a single batch fuel loading. Transmutation efficiencies ranged between 19% and 27% for TRU-based fuels (13% in LEU). Total TRU material contents for disposal ranged between 730 and 808 kg per metric ton of initial heavy metal loading, reducing TRU inventory mass by as much as 27%. Decay heat and source terms of the discharged fuel were also calculated as part of the spent fuel disposal consideration. The results indicated strong potential of TRU-based fuel in VHTR.     

秦山三期CANDU堆应用稍浓铀的研究

对秦山三期CANDU堆应用稍浓铀的可行性用DRAGON／DONUON程序做了时均堆芯研究分析确定秦山三期采用稍浓铀的最优富集度为1.125wt％并对使用此富集度稍浓铀的秦山三期CANDU堆做了基于通道年龄模型的瞬时堆芯检验计算结果表明,在使用2．4棒束换料及简单的分2个燃耗区,外内区燃耗比为0.9时,能够满足秦山三期运行执照限制秦山三期CANDU堆使用此富集度燃料的经济效益的初步分析表明,它将使燃耗提高到185GWd／t(U),每年节省天然铀资源约53吨,减少乏燃料约116吨,节省燃料循环费用约6700万元计算表明,勿需对秦山三期堆芯结构和运行模式做重大改造即可完成天然铀向稍浓铀的过渡。     

Analysis of relative release rates of radionuclides from the RBMK-1500 reactor fuel elements

Specific activities (concentrations) of fission products (FP) and activation products in spent fuel elements of the RBMK-1500 reactor were calculated using SCALE 5 computer code. Different burnup (5.1–21.0 MWd/kg) fuel assemblies were experimentally investigated. Activities of radionuclides present in the coolant water of storage cases of defective fuel elements were experimentally measured and analyzed. Experimental results provide a basis for a quantitative analysis of radionuclide release from spent fuel of the RBMK-1500 reactor. Relative release rates of radionuclides from the fuel matrix were assessed based on a comparison of experimental results with theoretical calculations. On the basis of analysis results released fission and activation products can be divided into several groups according to their release rates from fuel; this can be generalized for radionuclides with similar chemical properties.     

Fabrication of DUPIC fuel pellets using high burn-up spent PWR fuel

Technology for the direct usage of a spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactors (DUPIC) was developed in KAERI to reduce the amount of spent fuel. DUPIC fuel pellets were fabricated using a dry processing method to re-fabricate CANDU fuel from spent PWR fuel without any intentional separation of fissile materials or fission products. The DUPIC fuel element fabrication process satisfied a quality assurance program in accordance with the Canadian standard. For the DUPIC fuels with various fuel burn-ups between 27,300 and 65,000 MWd/tU, the sintered pellet density decreased with increasing fuel burn-ups. Fission gas releases and powder properties of the spent fuel also influenced the DUPIC fuel characteristics. Measurement of cesium content released from green pellets revealed that their sintered density significantly depended on sintering temperature history. It was useful to establish a DUPIC fuel fabrication technology in which a high-burn-up fuel with 65,000 MWd/tU was treated.     

Effect of fission products yield library on the calculation of the nuclide composition of the fuel in sodium-cooled fast reactors

The calculation of the composition of irradiated fuel for different degrees of burnup is a basic problem in the analysis of nuclear-radiological safety of objects holding spent fuel assemblies. The yield of fission products is one of the important initial indicators in burnup calculations. Methods for compiling libraries of fission products yield on the basis of the ENDF/B up-to-date evaluated nuclear data files are described. The nuclide composition of uranium oxide and uranium-plutonium-zirconium metal fuel in sodium-cooled fast reactors is analyzed by means of high-precision calculations performed with different fission product yields libraries using different computer codes MONTEBURNS–MCNP5–ORIGEN2 and the results are presented.