Numerical investigation of a heat transfer within the prismatic fuel assembly of a very high temperature reactor

The complex geometry of the hexagonal fuel blocks of the prismatic fuel assembly in a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) hinders accurate evaluations of the temperature profile within the fuel assembly without elaborate numerical calculations. Therefore, simplified models such as a unit cell model have been widely applied for the analyses and designs of prismatic VHTRs since they have been considered as effective approaches reducing the computational efforts. In a prismatic VHTR, however, the simplified models cannot consider a heat transfer within a fuel assembly as well as a coolant flow through a bypass gap between the fuel assemblies, which may significantly affect the maximum fuel temperature. In this paper, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis has been carried out on a typical fuel assembly of a prismatic VHTR. Thermal behaviours and heat transfer within the fuel assembly are intensively investigated using the CFD solutions. In addition, the accuracy of the unit cell approach is assessed against the CFD solutions. Two example situations are illustrated to demonstrate the deficiency of the unit cell model caused by neglecting the effects of the bypass gap flow and the radial power distribution within the fuel assembly.     

MOX燃料组件装入现役M310堆芯对堆芯核设计的影响研究

国际上的MOX燃料技术目前已较为成熟,且已有在压水堆中运行的工程经验。本文对MOX燃料组件的中子学性能进行了分析,对其在我国现役M310堆芯应用的可行性进行了研究,得到了M310堆芯由全部使用UO2燃料组件向使用30%的MOX燃料组件过渡的堆芯燃料管理方案,并对使用MOX燃料组件的堆芯的部分中子学参数进行了初步分析。结果表明:使用30%的MOX燃料组件的堆芯可达到与全UO2堆芯相当的循环长度;堆芯反应性控制能力可满足要求;慢化剂温度系数、Doppler温度系数、Doppler功率系数、氙和钐的动态特性均趋向使堆芯运行更加安全和稳定。本文的研究结果可为MOX燃料在M310堆芯中应用的进一步研究提供参考。     

Influence of fuel bundle loading errors on the subcritically during refueling campaigns for the present BWR cores of KRB-II

On the basis of real fuel assembly inventories as they are presently available in KRB-II, the influence of fuel bundle loading errors on the subcriticality during refueling campaigns was investigated with the calculational methods of the incore fuel management. To this, control rod cells which show the least shut-down reactivity were considered and less reactive fuel assemblies were successively exchanged with fuel assemblies of highest possible reactivity from distant core regions. The results show that the total shut-down reactivity is only reduced by a comparatively small amount. The stuck rod shut-down reactivity, on the other hand, is strongly diminished with increasing number of locally concentrated mislocated fuel assemblies of highest possible reactivity. Thus, unintentional criticality cannot be reached during refueling campaigns with all control rods inserted. In conjunction with the deliberate withdrawal of one control rod, two or three mislocated fuel assemblies can cause criticality, depending on the absolute value of the realized stuck rod shut-down reactivity.     

Effects of transverse power distribution on thermal hydraulic analysis

To investigate the effects of transverse power distribution on fuel temperature, a two-dimensional thermal analysis model was developed in this study. An equilibrium reactor core with 22 fuel assemblies facilitated with plate-type fuel was modeled using Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code, and the fuel assembly that released the largest amount of power was obtained. The fuel plates were divided into 4 or 12 vertical stripes within the fuel width in order to obtain the transverse power distributions. With 4 stripes in the fuel, the highest power peaking was 2.36, whereas the highest power peaking was 2.70 with 12 stripes in the fuel. A 6th order polynomial was generated to predict the local power peaking at the edge of the fuel. Using this 6th order polynomial, the maximum power peaking at the edge of the fuel was 3.06. As per transverse power distributions, the temperature at the edge of the fuel should have been higher with a higher power peaking. However, the maximum temperature in the fuel decreased with a power peaking higher than 2.65. This was because the high power locally released from the edge of the fuel was immediately dissipated to the cladding by lateral heat conduction. As with the maximum temperature, the heat flux also overshot and converged at a certain value. This showed that the fuel did not need to be divided into more than 18 vertical stripes within the fuel width in order to obtain the local power peaking from nuclear physics calculations.     

Calculation of the ex-core neutron noise induced by individual fuel assembly vibrations in two PWR cores

Calculation of the neutron noise induced by fuel assembly vibrations in two pressurized water reactor(PWR) cores has been conducted to investigate the effect of cycle burnup on the properties of the ex-core detector noise. An extension of the method and the computational models of a previous work have been applied to two different PWR cores to examine a hypothesis that fuel assembly vibrations cause the corresponding peak in the auto power spectral density(APSD) increase during the cycle. Stochastic vibrations along a random two-dimensional trajectory of individual fuel assemblies were assumed to occur at different locations in the cores. Two models regarding the displacement amplitude of the vibrating assembly have been considered to determine the noise source. Then, the APSD of the ex-core detector noise was evaluated at three burnup steps. The results show that there is no monotonic tendency of the change in the APSD of ex-core detector; however, the increase in APSD occurs predominantly for peripheral assemblies. When assuming simultaneous vibrations of a number of fuel assemblies uniformly distributed over the core, the effect of the peripheral assemblies dominates the ex-core neutron noise.This behaviour was found similar in both cores.     

核燃料

在法国核然料工业组织中,法杰马公司主要销售燃料组件。法比燃料公司(FBFC)的3个从属工厂都负责燃料组件的制造,该公司每年生产装铀量为1500t 的燃料组件。自1985年以来,法杰马公司又销售先进燃料组件(AFA)。该 AFA 的主要特点是使用了锆合金定位格架和可拆式上、下管嘴。大亚湾核电站要用的燃料组件正是该种与一般组件不同的先进燃料组件。法杰马公司采用钆作可燃毒物,以保证燃料组件的良好特性。近来该公司又推出混合氧化物燃料组件(MOX)。由于法杰马公司在设计和制造的各阶段都严格遵守了质量保证和质量控制制度,所以其产品质量优良、可靠性好。展望未来,法杰马公司将与法国核燃料工业中的其它集团一起,努力为用户提供尽可能好的产品。     

Study of the radiotoxicity of actinides recycling in boiling water reactors fuel

In this paper the production and destruction, as well as the radiotoxicity of plutonium and minor actinides (MA) obtained from the multi-recycling of boiling water reactors (BWR) fuel are analyzed. A BWR MOX fuel assembly, with uranium (from enrichment tails), plutonium and minor actinides is designed and studied using the HELIOS code. The actinides mass and the radiotoxicity of the spent fuel are compared with those of the once-through or direct cycle. Other type of fuel assembly is also analyzed: an assembly with enriched uranium and minor actinides; without plutonium. For this study, the fuel remains in the reactor for four cycles, where each cycle is 18 months length, with a discharge burnup of 48 MWd/kg. After this time, the fuel is placed in the spent fuel pool to be cooled during 5 years. Afterwards, the fuel is recycled for the next fuel cycle; 2 years are considered for recycle and fuel fabrication. Two recycles are taken into account in this study. Regarding radiotoxicity, results show that in the period from the spent fuel discharge until 1000 years, the highest reduction in the radiotoxicity related to the direct cycle is obtained with a fuel composed of MA and enriched uranium. However, in the period after few thousands of years, the lowest radiotoxicity is obtained using the fuel with plutonium and MA. The reduction in the radiotoxicity of the spent fuel after one or two recycling in a BWR is however very small for the studied MOX assemblies, reaching a maximum reduction factor of 2.     

Numerical Prediction of Radiation Heat Transfer in Spent Fuel Assembly Based on Network Method for Multi-surface Enclosure

Spent fuel assemblies in sodium-cooled fast reactor will be exposed in gas environment during transport process, leading to the worse heat transfer performance distinctly. For purpose of predicting the temperature distribution of spent fuel assemblies in gas environment, especially preventing the highest temperature of cladding exceeding the design limits, a numerical model was established based on network method for multi-surface enclosure, and a code intended for numerical analysis was developed based on this model. Reliability of the code was verified due to the comparison with experimental data of 37-rod simulated assembly. The code was confirmed to be more conservative than the Manteufel-Todreas correlation while comparing the predicting result of both. In addition, the temperature distributions under uniform-heating condition and nonuniform-heating condition were compared, and the influences of heating power and surface emissivity on temperature were analyzed.     

On the use of RELAP5-3D as a subchannel analysis code

The capabilities of the RELAP5-3D code to perform subchannel analyses in sodium-cooled fuel assemblies were evaluated. The motivation was the desire to analyze fuel assemblies with traditional (solid pins) as well as non-traditional (e.g., annular pins with internal cooling, bottle-shape) geometries. Since no current subchannel codes can handle such fuel assembly designs, a new flexible RELAP5-based subchannel model was developed. It was shown that subchannel analysis of sodium-cooled fuel assemblies is indeed possible through the use of control variables in RELAP5. The subchannel model performance was then verified and validated in code-to-code and code-to-experiment analyses, respectively. First, the model was compared to the SUPERENERGY II code for solid fuel pins in a conventional hexagonal lattice. It was shown that the temperature predictions from the two codes agreed within 2% (<3.5 °C). Second, the model was applied to the Oak Ridge 19-pin test, and it was found that the measured outlet temperature distribution could be predicted with a maximum error of 8% (<7 °C). Furthermore, the use of semicircular ribs on the duct wall to flatten the temperature distribution in a traditional hexagonal assembly was explored by means of the newly developed RELAP5-3D subchannel model; the results are reported here as an example of the model capabilities.     

基于克里金方法的快堆燃料组件设计

为详细研究快堆组件棒束中的流动与换热两方面因素对组件热工水力特性的影响,本工作采用克里金方法研究快堆燃料组件的设计参数。由计算结果可知：保证组件出口平均温度不变,随组件压降的升高,满足条件的P/D和H/D范围变化有一定的方向性,逐渐靠近原点;保证组件棒束的压降不变,随组件出口平均温度的升高,P/D和H/D范围变化不具备方向性。根据计算结果可在给定输入限值条件下得到组件满足条件的设计参数范围,可为今后大型快堆的燃料组件选型提供参考。     

田湾核电站TVS-2M先导组件堆芯热工水力分析

田湾核电站一号机组于第5燃料循环装入6组TVS-2M先导燃料组件,并将经历从第5燃料循环到第8燃料循环4年的堆内运行。本文通过对先导燃料组件堆芯热工水力分析,堆芯运行实际试验测量以及组件变形检查,验证了热工水力设计程序计算模型的合理性以及计算结果与试验结果的符合性。结果表明,TVS-2M燃料组件与AFA燃料组件具有良好的相容性,从而证实了过渡循环条件下反应堆运行的安全性和可靠性。     

基于多表面封闭系统网络法的钠冷快堆乏燃料组件内部传热数值分析

钠冷快堆乏燃料组件在转运过程中会暴露在气体环境中,散热性能明显下降。为预测乏燃料组件在气体环境中的温度分布,特别是避免燃料组件包壳最高温度超过设计限值,本文建立了基于多表面封闭系统网络法的数值模型,以此为基础开发了数值分析程序。通过与37棒束模拟组件实验数据的对比,验证了程序的可靠性。通过与Manteufel-Todreas双层模型预测结果的比较,证明了程序更具有保守性。另外,比较了均匀与非均匀加热两种情况下的温度分布,分析了加热功率、表面发射率对温度的影响。     

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%.     

An effective homogenization method for heterogeneous assemblies

An effective homogenization method has been developed for heterogeneous assemblies such as fuel assemblies with and without control blades in BWR and control-rod channels in FBR. Effective homogenized cross sections are calculated so as to preserve the integrated reaction rates in a heterogeneous assembly in each group by iteratively changing the cross section used in homogeneous super-cell calculations in a model composed of the heterogeneous assembly and a fuel region. The method has been applied to the rod-worth calculation for pin rods in the fast critical assembly ZPPR-10 and to the power-density calculation of a test BWR core.     

基于多孔介质和等效热导率模型的快堆乏燃料组件传热特性数值分析

乏燃料组件在运输或转运过程中,组件会裸露在传热较差的气体介质内,需关注其散热性能。为模拟乏燃料组件的传热特性,采用多孔介质模型模拟组件的流动阻力,并利用等效热导率模型模拟组件内部的传热。由于自然对流条件下乏燃料组件内部流动符合层流假设,在多孔介质阻力模型中忽略了惯性力项的作用。将等效热导率模型的模拟结果与SNL-LMFBR实验结果进行对比,证明了该模拟方法的有效性。计算结果表明,在水平放置工况下乏燃料组件温度轴向呈对称分布,在竖直放置工况下轴向呈非对称分布,乏燃料组件的高温区域向组件上方偏移。     

核燃料组件无损检测探测系统设计

燃料组件是反应堆的核心部分,在高温、高压及强中子辐射场等复杂环境条件下,燃料棒中芯块会出现肿胀、变形甚至包壳破裂,严重威胁反应堆的安全运行。为了更好地了解燃料组件在反应堆内的变化,研究高燃耗的燃料组件中燃料棒的中心空洞形成和燃料棒的变形情况,高能X射线无损检测是一种有效的技术手段。由于辐照后核燃料组件自身具有强放射性,探测系统设计中必须考虑减弱燃料组件自身辐射对探测采集的影响,因此组件探测系统中探测器阵列及准直器的优化设计十分必要。经过建模及相关模拟计算,得到了探测器单元最佳尺寸,优化了后准直器的结构设计,为提高燃料组件无损检测系统重建图像的质量提供帮助。     

Analysis of fuel management in the KIPT neutron source facility

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) of USA and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have been collaborating on the conceptual design development of an experimental neutron source facility consisting of an electron accelerator driven sub-critical assembly. The neutron source driving the sub-critical assembly is generated from the interaction of 100 KW electron beam with a natural uranium target. The sub-critical assembly surrounding the target is fueled with low enriched WWR-M2 type hexagonal fuel assemblies. The U-235 enrichment of the fuel material is <20%. The facility will be utilized for basic and applied research, producing medical isotopes, and training young specialists. With the 100 KW electron beam power, the total thermal power of the facility is ∼360 kW including the fission power of ∼260 kW. The burnup of the fissile materials and the buildup of fission products continuously reduce the system reactivity during the operation, decrease the neutron flux level, and consequently impact the facility performance. To preserve the neutron flux level during the operation, the fuel assemblies should be added and shuffled for compensating the lost reactivity caused by burnup. Beryllium reflector could also be utilized to increase the fuel life time in the sub-critical core. This paper studies the fuel cycles and shuffling schemes of the fuel assemblies of the sub-critical assembly to preserve the system reactivity and the neutron flux level during the operation.     

Statistical evaluation of pin gaps in fuel clusters for fugen (II)

Fuel pin gaps of Fugen fuel assemblies deviate statistically from their nominal value due to manufacturing and assembling tolerances which influence the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the reactor core. For assurance of the minimum fuel pin gap, an analytical method of evaluating the reliability of spacer gauge tests applied to selected fuel pin gaps arrayed within a Fugen fuel assembly is discussed where a computer program STGAP is utilized.Correlations among the thickness of a spacer gauge, the reliability of the test and the rate of rejecting fuel assemblies whose pin gaps all satisfy the minimum design criterion are discussed in connection with the optimum gauge thickness for a given realiability level of the test. Sample calculation shows that fuel subassemblies installed in a Fugen reactor core have the overall reliability level of 99.9954% at the beginning of fuel life.