超临界水冷堆CSR1000反应性控制方法研究

超临界水冷堆完全依靠可燃毒物及控制棒进行反应性控制,因而可燃毒物布置方案及控制棒管理方案是其堆芯设计的关键。通过燃料组件反应性计算分析,本文选取Er2O3作为与UO2燃料混合的可燃毒物,以及与沸水堆类似的十字形控制棒,然后利用三维堆芯物理热工耦合计算方法,进行控制棒管理方案设计,建立满足总体及安全性设计要求的超临界水冷堆CSR1000平衡循环堆芯,并对堆芯关键设计参数进行评价。     

基于MOX燃料组件的177混合堆芯装料方案数值研究

通过计算华龙一号（HPR1000）压水堆平均卸料燃耗得到乏燃料中钚（Pu）同位素的含量,以此成分比例来设计铀钚混合氧化物（MOX）燃料。采用离散型燃料组件设计,通过不同Pu含量的MOX燃料棒离散型布置来降低与UO₂燃料组件间的功率梯度。采用程序MCNP和COSLATC模拟堆芯功率分布和热中子注量率分布,采用分区分层的低泄漏装料方案,降低不同燃料组件间的功率梯度,展平堆芯的功率分布。在不考虑可燃毒物的前提下,利用3种Pu含量的MOX组件将混合堆芯的功率峰因子控制在1.77左右,明显优于原堆芯的功率峰因子,为国产三代压水堆引入MOX燃料提供了具有参考价值的装料方案。      

小型模块化氟盐冷却高温堆可燃毒物布置方案

小型模块化氟盐冷却高温堆(Small Modular Fluoride-cooled High temperature Reactor,SM-FHR)具有固有安全和高温输出等特点,适合因地制宜的核能综合利用,促进能源供给模式的多样化发展。简化反应性控制是SM-FHR的设计要点之一。本文针对特定的SM-FHR设计模型,采用MOBAT燃耗程序,分析研究可燃毒物碳化硼颗粒在不同装载量、不同颗粒大小以及不同空间布置等情况下,对SM-FHR剩余反应性的影响。计算结果表明:堆芯燃料可燃毒物体积比为52、可燃毒物颗粒大小为200μm及降低堆芯边缘组件可燃毒物装载量的方案效果较佳。该布置方案的最大剩余反应性从38 000×10~(-5)降到2 500×10~(-5),寿期内最大功率峰因子为1.26,其燃耗天数有所下降,但能满足两年以上换料周期预期。研究表明该可燃毒物布置方案展平了堆芯燃耗深度和功率分布,有利于提高堆芯安全性。     

超临界水冷堆可燃毒物设计与分析

在超临界水冷堆中,为了减少控制棒的使用,采用加入可燃毒物的方式控制初始剩余反应性。目前广泛采用的是稀土氧化物弥散在燃料中的整体型可燃毒物设计。通过对比4种常用的稀土氧化物,选择Er₂O₃作为可燃毒物材料。分析了不同可燃毒物布置方案对组件性能的影响,在不同可燃毒物含量下对组件安全性进行了评价。分析了可燃毒物对堆芯性能的影响,发现加入可燃毒物有利于降低堆芯径向功率峰,但会增大轴向功率峰并使其往堆芯顶部偏移。通过对该现象的分析,提出了降低堆芯底部温度和增大轴向富集度梯度的改进措施。计算结果表明,优化后的堆芯轴向功率峰明显降低,从而降低了最大包壳温度。     

可燃毒物提高小型压水堆堆芯寿期研究

针对长寿期堆芯的应用需求,开展了提高小型压水堆堆芯寿期研究。以棒状燃料为对象,对不同栅格尺寸和不同可燃毒物的选取进行计算,得出小型压水堆堆芯寿期相关影响因素。通过对不同尺寸的燃料栅格进行输运 燃耗计算,得到燃耗最佳栅格尺寸。以燃耗最佳栅格尺寸建立组件,并选择转换性能好的锕系核素²⁴⁰PuO₂作为可燃毒物,利用²⁴⁰Pu吸收中子转换成易裂变核素²⁴¹Pu的特性,对堆芯实现反应性控制和寿期延长。本研究通过对燃料栅格尺寸和可燃毒物的合理选择,提高了燃料利用率,达到延长堆芯寿期的目的。     

可燃毒物提高小型压水堆堆芯寿期研究

针对长寿期堆芯的应用需求,开展了提高小型压水堆堆芯寿期研究。以棒状燃料为对象,对不同栅格尺寸和不同可燃毒物的选取进行计算,得出小型压水堆堆芯寿期相关影响因素。通过对不同尺寸的燃料栅格进行输运-燃耗计算,得到燃耗最佳栅格尺寸。以燃耗最佳栅格尺寸建立组件,并选择转换性能好的锕系核素~(240)PuO_2作为可燃毒物,利用~(240)Pu吸收中子转换成易裂变核素~(241)Pu的特性,对堆芯实现反应性控制和寿期延长。本研究通过对燃料栅格尺寸和可燃毒物的合理选择,提高了燃料利用率,达到延长堆芯寿期的目的。     

长寿期压水堆板状燃料组件可燃毒物选型研究

可燃毒物在长寿期压水堆中起着至关重要的作用,板状燃料组件在长寿期压水堆中具有较好的应用前景。本文开展长寿期压水堆板状燃料组件可燃毒物选型及中子学特性研究,对含不同可燃毒物的板状燃料组件进行输运-燃耗计算,筛选出中子学性能较好的可燃毒物。结果表明,采用富集同位素157Gd、167Er和B4C作为可燃毒物时,几乎无反应性惩罚;当采用PACS-J和231Pa作为可燃毒物时,因其自身特性,在寿期末不仅未造成反应性惩罚,且延长了组件寿期,提高了燃料利用率;PACS-J与慢燃耗可燃毒物组合,可获得更优的反应性曲线。由本文结果可知,板状燃料组件可以选用富集同位素157Gd、富集同位素167Er、B4C、231Pa和PACS-J作为可燃毒物,可燃毒物组合可以选用PACS-Er和PACS-Pa两种组合方案。     

百万千瓦级压水堆核电站长燃耗堆芯钆可燃毒物优化研究

对百万千瓦级参考核电站长燃耗堆芯（１８个月换料）采用的可燃毒物（钆）含量与堆芯燃料管理主要结果进行了分析研究。该研究采用先进的燃料管理程序系统,对不同可燃毒物含量和不同可燃毒物棒根数的燃料组件进行了计算,给出了组件无限增殖因子（ｋｉｎｆ）随燃耗的变化关系,据此对参考堆芯采用相同的装载进行了４种方案燃料管理计算。计算结果表明,对于堆芯燃料管理,采用低可燃毒物含量、含可燃毒物棒数多的装载方案明显优于高可燃毒物含量、含可燃毒物棒少的堆芯装载方案。     

PWR堆芯中弥散型可燃毒物的燃耗特性研究

在压水反应堆(PWR)堆芯核设计中,通常采用可燃毒物来补偿反应性和展平功率分布。对于长寿期堆芯设计,可燃毒物的消耗和燃料燃耗的匹配研究更为重要。利用基于蒙特卡罗方法开发的堆芯燃耗计算程序(MOI)对天然元素、人工核素、可溶硼等多种弥散型可燃毒物进行燃耗特性分析。结果表明锕系可燃核素231Pa、240Pu等弥散型可燃毒物可用于长寿期PWR的设计。     

改进双排棒组件超临界水堆堆芯设计

为了提升堆芯性能,本文对现有的双排棒组件设计及堆芯设计方案进行了优化,并利用超临界核热耦合计算平台评估了优化后的方案。在组件设计中,为了减少寿期末堆芯中可燃毒物残余,优化了组件中可燃毒物棒的位置及可燃毒物含量。在堆芯设计中,为了延长堆芯寿期、降低包壳温度,对堆芯给水分配方案、换料方案及控制棒方案进行了一系列的优化。耦合计算结果表明,改进后的堆芯设计方案满足设计准则,堆芯寿期、卸料燃耗和包壳温度等参数均优于原方案。     

Experimental validation of effectiveness of rod-type burnable poisons on reactivity control in HTTR

In block-type high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), insertion depth of control rods (CRs) into a core should be retained shallow to keep fuel temperature below 1495 °C through a burnup period, and hence excess reactivity should be reduced through a different method. Loading burnable poisons (BPs) into the core is considered as a method to resolve this problem as in case of light water reactors (LWRs). Effectiveness of BPs on reactivity control in LWRs has been validated by experimental data, however, this has not been done yet for HTGRs, because there was not enough burnup characteristics data for HTGRs required for the validation. The High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) is a block-type HTGRs and it adopts rod-type BPs to control reactivity. The HTTR has been operated up to middle burnup, and thereby the experimental data was expected to show effect of the BPs on the reactivity control. Hence, in order to validate effectiveness of rod-type BPs on reactivity control in the HTTR, we investigated on the HTTR results whether the BPs have functioned as designed. As a result, the CRs insertion depth has been retained shallow within allowable range, and then effectiveness of rod-type BPs on reactivity control in the HTTR was validated.     

A simple mathematical model of the core criticality control by burnable poisons

A simple mathematical model is proposed and developed for the core criticality control by burnable poisons (BPs) distributed only throughout the peripheral region of the core while its central region remains free from BPs. The numerical burnup calculations confirm the effectiveness of the considered BP distribution for the criticality control of nuclear reactors.     

Use of burnable poisons in nuclear reactors

This paper considers the nature and purpose of the use of burnable poisons in nuclear reactors. The points described are: possible ways of distributing the poisons in the active zone, constructional and engineering problems in adding poisons to nuclear reactors, and some peculiarities of the physics design of reactors with burnable neutron poisons.     

低泄漏堆芯燃料管理的一种多循环优化方法

提出一种用于指导压水堆低泄漏堆芯燃料管理的多循环优化方法。该方法将多循环优化问题分解为３步优化处理：首先用线性规划确定满足多循环总体目标最优的各个单循环优化目标参数,然后以此为条件,对多循环中相继的各个单循环进行燃料组件的优化布置,最后进行可燃毒物的优化配置。本文着重讨论第一步优化方法,并给出主要计算结果。     

Compensation of the reactivity of nuclear reactors by laminated burnable poisons

The possibility of using laminated burnable poisons to compensate the reactivity of nuclear reactors is discussed. A method is proposed for computing the neutron distribution outside the poison in the P₁-approximation; the space and time distribution of absorbing material in a slab of burnable poison consisting of several layers of heterogeneous materials is calculated on the assumption that scattering may be neglected.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 215–218, March, 1967.     

Performance evaluation of PSO and GA in PWR core loading pattern optimization

The efficient operation and fuel management of PWRs are of utmost importance. Recently, genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques have attracted considerable attention among various modern heuristic optimization techniques. GA is a powerful optimization technique, based upon the principles of natural selection and species evolution. GA is finding popularity as design tools because of its versatility, intuitiveness and ability to solve highly non-linear, mixed integer optimization problems. PSO refers to a relatively new family of algorithms and is mainly inspired by social behavior patterns of organisms that live within large group. This study addresses the application and performance comparison of PSO and GA optimization methods for nuclear fuel loading pattern problem. Flattening of power inside the reactor core of Bushehr nuclear power plant (WWER-1000 type) is chosen as an objective function to prove the validity of algorithms. In addition the performance of both optimization techniques in terms of convergence rate and computational time is compared. It is found that, from an evolutionary point of view, the performance of both GA and PSO is quite adequate. But, GA seems to arrive at its final parameter value in a fewer generations than the PSO. It is also noticed that, the computation time for implemented GA in this work is too high in comparison to PSO.     

长寿期压水堆颗粒弥散可燃毒物中子学设计与分析

为实现长寿期压水堆的低硼运行,对颗粒弥散可燃毒物进行了中子学设计与分析,颗粒弥散可燃毒物的自屏效应可通过颗粒半径进行调节,能实现可燃毒物消耗和燃料燃耗的较优匹配。本文选取目前压水堆常用的快燃耗可燃毒物B、Gd为对象,研究了颗粒弥散可燃毒物不同颗粒半径和填充份额对组件中子学特性的影响。结果表明,颗粒弥散可燃毒物能实现长期稳定的反应性控制,其中BISO含硼弥散颗粒符合长寿期压水堆低硼运行的要求,适合作为长寿期压水堆的候选可燃毒物进行下一步研究。     

SIMMER model of a low-enriched uranium non-power reactor

IRSN has started using the coupled neutronics–fluid dynamics code SIMMER [Tobita, Y., Kondo, Sa., Yamano, H., Morita, K., Maschek,W., Coste, P., Cadiou, T., 2006. The development of SIMMER-III, an advanced computer program for LMFR safety analysis, and its application to sodium experiments. Nucl. Technol. 153 (3), 245] to study core-disruptive accidents induced by insertions of large reactivities to produce very short period power excursions in fuel plate-type and water-moderated experimental research reactors. Until now, French safety analyses retain a bounding thermal energy released and mechanical yields, deduced from analysis of destructive in-pile test programs, to study the behavior of such reactors and design their structures and containment.Contrary to this approach, the present research program aims at modeling the design basis accident of research reactors with a low-enriched fuel using a CFD code. The objective is to analyze the effects of reactivity feedbacks and how they would limit the generated thermal energy released in the fuel. These aspects require a close coupling of the neutronics to the fluid dynamics analysis. The consequences of the nuclear power excursion, the changes of state of the fuel and the coolant, and ultimately the mechanical energy released are calculated by SIMMER. For large step-wise reactivity introductions, the Doppler effect and, at a lower extent, the fuel element thermal dilatation, which generates locally a decrease of the moderator to fuel ratio, limit the power excursion before the energy released is high enough to melt a large part of the fuel. Moreover, it has been shown that imposing an external reactivity as a step-wise or time-dependent reactivity introduction yields results quite different from those of the physical movement of control rods.     

New genetic algorithms (GA) to optimize PWR reactors: Part III: The Haling power depletion method for in-core fuel management analysis

The Haling Power Distribution (HPD) has been applied in a unique process to greatly accelerate the in-core fuel management optimization calculations. These calculations involve; the arrangement of fuel assemblies (FAs) and the placement of Burnable Poisons (BPs) in the fresh FAs. The HPD deals only with the arrangement of FAs. The purpose of this paper is to describe past uses of the HPD, provide an example selected from many similar calculations to explain why and how it can be used, and also to show its effectiveness as a filter in the GARCO GA code. The GARCO (Genetic Algorithm Reactor Core Optimization) is an innovative GA code that was developed by modifying the classical representation of the genotype and GA operators. A reactor physics code evaluates the LPs in the population using the HPD Method, which rapidly depletes the core in a single depletion step with a constant power distribution. The HPD is used basically in GARCO as a filter to eliminate invalid LPs created by the genetic operators, to choose a reference LP for BP optimization, and to create an initial population for simultaneous optimization of the LP and BP placement into the core. The accurate depletion calculation of the LP with BPs is done with the coupled lattice and reactor physics CASMO-4/SIMULATE3 package. However, the fact that these codes validate safety of the core with the added BP placement design also validates the use of the HPD method. The calculations are applied to the TMI-1 core as an example PWR providing concrete results.     

Regulation of nuclear power plants a multi objective approach

The regulation of nuclear power plant (NPP) is evolving in a direction to harmonize probabilistic safety criteria in the near future. The utilities will not only have to demonstrate that they are operating below a target risk level but also to demonstrate that the unavailability of some of the critical safety systems are below a specified level. In order to satisfy the Technical Specification and Maintenance (TS&M) requirements in a cost effective manner multi-objective optimization of TS&M requirements is of profound interest. The constrained multi-objective optimization of the TS&M requirements of a nuclear power plant (NPP) based on risk and cost gives the pareto-optimal solutions, from which the utility can pick suitable decision variables. The paper presents a multi objective genetic algorithm (GA) technique to investigate a trade-off between risk and cost both at the system and the plant level for Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) and Main Steam Line Break (MSLB) as initiating events in a NPP.