Analysis of burnup performance and temperature coefficient for a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium

Xue-Chao Zhao; Yang Zou; Rui Yan; Xiang-Zhou Cai

doi:10.1007/s41365-022-01155-2

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Analysis of burnup performance and temperature coefficient for a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium

NUCLEAR ENERGY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING | Updated：2023-02-13

- Analysis of burnup performance and temperature coefficient for a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium
- Nuclear Science and Techniques Vol. 34, Issue 1, Article number: 17(2023)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  2.CAS Innovative Academies in TMSR Energy System, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Author bio：
  
  zhaoxuechao@sinap.ac.cn
  † zouyang@sinap.ac.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s41365-022-01155-2
  CLC：
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Xue-Chao Zhao, Yang Zou, Rui Yan, et al. Analysis of burnup performance and temperature coefficient for a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 34(1):17(2023)
DOI：

Xue-Chao Zhao, Yang Zou, Rui Yan, et al. Analysis of burnup performance and temperature coefficient for a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 34(1):17(2023) DOI： 10.1007/s41365-022-01155-2.

摘要

Abstract

In a thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR), it is difficult to achieve the pure ,232,Th–,233,U fuel cycle without sufficient ,233,U fuel supply. Therefore, the original molten salt reactor was designed to use enriched uranium or plutonium as the starting fuel. By exploiting plutonium as the starting fuel and thorium as the fertile fuel, the high-purity ,233,U produced can be separated from the spent fuel by fluorination volatilization. Therefore, the molten salt reactor started with plutonium can be designed as a ,233,U breeder with the burning plutonium extracted from a pressurized water reactor (PWR). Combining these advantages, the study of the physical properties of plutonium-activated salt reactors is attractive. This study mainly focused on the burnup performance and temperature reactivity coefficient of a small modular molten-salt reactor started with plutonium (SM-MSR-Pu). The neutron spectra,233,U production, plutonium incineration, minor actinide (MA) residues, and temperature reactivity coefficients for different fuel salt volume fractions (,VF,) and hexagon pitch (,P,) sizes were calculated to analyze the burnup behavior in the SM-SMR-Pu. Based on the comparative analysis results of the burn-up calculation, a lower ,VF, and larger ,P, size are more beneficial for improving the burnup performance. However, from a passive safety perspective, a higher fuel volume fraction and smaller hexagon pitch size are necessary to achieve a deep negative feedback coefficient. Therefore, an excellent burnup performance and a deep negative temperature feedback coefficient are incompatible, and the optimal design range is relatively narrow in the optimized design of an SM-MSR-Pu. In a comprehensive consideration,P, = 20 cm and ,VF, = 20% are considered to be relatively balanced design parameters. Based on the fuel off-line batching scheme, a 250 MWth SM-MSR-Pu can produce approximately 29.83 kg of ,233,U, incinerate 98.29 kg of plutonium, and accumulate 14.70 kg of MAs per year, and the temperature reactivity coefficient can always be lower than -4.0 pcm/K.

关键词

Keywords

Molten salt fuelIncinerate plutonium233U productionTemperature reactivity coefficient

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