Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels
The spent fuel from a PWR still contains some amount of fissile materials depending on their initial enrichment and the burnup. Thus, spent fuel from PWRs containing about 1.5% of fissile material could be used as fuel for CANDU reactors after some fission products are removed from it. Thus, an imp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Brazilian Radiation Protection Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Proteção Radiológica, SBPR)
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://bjrs.org.br/revista/index.php/REVISTA/article/view/1219 |
| _version_ | 1811234510353727488 |
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| author | Clarysson Alberto Mello da Silva Carlos Eduardo Velasquez Cabrera Michel Cleberson Bernardo de Almeida Rochkhudon Batista de Faria Claubia Pereira |
| author_facet | Clarysson Alberto Mello da Silva Carlos Eduardo Velasquez Cabrera Michel Cleberson Bernardo de Almeida Rochkhudon Batista de Faria Claubia Pereira |
| author_sort | Clarysson Alberto Mello da Silva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
The spent fuel from a PWR still contains some amount of fissile materials depending on their initial enrichment and the burnup. Thus, spent fuel from PWRs containing about 1.5% of fissile material could be used as fuel for CANDU reactors after some fission products are removed from it. Thus, an important proposal is the DUPIC cycle, where spent fuels from a PWR are packaged into a CANDU fuel bundle using mechanical reprocessing but without the need of chemical reprocessing. When it is refueled with reprocessed fuel, the reactivity of the system increases, and this behavior may affect the safety parameters of the reactor. Therefore, this work studies the neutronic parameters of two reprocessing fuel techniques: AIROX and OREOX, which are evaluated for two different cores configuration. The first one considers heavy water as a moderator and coolant. The second one considers heavy water and light water as moderator and coolant respectively. These studies evaluate the core behavior based on the different number of reprocessed fuels channels and compare them with the reference core. To perform the simulation the MCNPX was used to calculate the effective multiplication factor, fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity, void reactivity coefficient, and neutron flux, which were evaluated at steady state condition for the different cases. The results show that the presence of parasitic absorbers in the reprocessed fuels hardens the neutron spectrum. This behavior provokes an increase in the core reactivity, in the fuel temperature coefficient and in the void reactivity coefficient. Among these parameters, the use of light water reduces the core reactivity but do not improve the fuel temperature coefficient and the void reactivity coefficient.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:38:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4997b50196364e09ab991339f0e9edb9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2319-0612 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:38:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Brazilian Radiation Protection Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Proteção Radiológica, SBPR) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-4997b50196364e09ab991339f0e9edb92022-12-22T03:34:46ZengBrazilian Radiation Protection Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Proteção Radiológica, SBPR)Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences2319-06122020-09-018310.15392/bjrs.v8i3.1219Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuelsClarysson Alberto Mello da Silva0Carlos Eduardo Velasquez Cabrera1Michel Cleberson Bernardo de Almeida2Rochkhudon Batista de Faria3Claubia Pereira4Universidade Federal de Minas GeraisUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais The spent fuel from a PWR still contains some amount of fissile materials depending on their initial enrichment and the burnup. Thus, spent fuel from PWRs containing about 1.5% of fissile material could be used as fuel for CANDU reactors after some fission products are removed from it. Thus, an important proposal is the DUPIC cycle, where spent fuels from a PWR are packaged into a CANDU fuel bundle using mechanical reprocessing but without the need of chemical reprocessing. When it is refueled with reprocessed fuel, the reactivity of the system increases, and this behavior may affect the safety parameters of the reactor. Therefore, this work studies the neutronic parameters of two reprocessing fuel techniques: AIROX and OREOX, which are evaluated for two different cores configuration. The first one considers heavy water as a moderator and coolant. The second one considers heavy water and light water as moderator and coolant respectively. These studies evaluate the core behavior based on the different number of reprocessed fuels channels and compare them with the reference core. To perform the simulation the MCNPX was used to calculate the effective multiplication factor, fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity, void reactivity coefficient, and neutron flux, which were evaluated at steady state condition for the different cases. The results show that the presence of parasitic absorbers in the reprocessed fuels hardens the neutron spectrum. This behavior provokes an increase in the core reactivity, in the fuel temperature coefficient and in the void reactivity coefficient. Among these parameters, the use of light water reduces the core reactivity but do not improve the fuel temperature coefficient and the void reactivity coefficient. https://bjrs.org.br/revista/index.php/REVISTA/article/view/1219CANDU reactorDUPIC cycleAIROXOREOXMCNPX 2.6.0 |
| spellingShingle | Clarysson Alberto Mello da Silva Carlos Eduardo Velasquez Cabrera Michel Cleberson Bernardo de Almeida Rochkhudon Batista de Faria Claubia Pereira Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences CANDU reactor DUPIC cycle AIROX OREOX MCNPX 2.6.0 |
| title | Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| title_full | Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| title_fullStr | Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| title_short | Neutronic evaluation of CANDU-6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| title_sort | neutronic evaluation of candu 6 core using reprocessed fuels |
| topic | CANDU reactor DUPIC cycle AIROX OREOX MCNPX 2.6.0 |
| url | https://bjrs.org.br/revista/index.php/REVISTA/article/view/1219 |
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