Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

A Reduced-Boron OPR1000 Core Based on the BigT Burnable Absorber

  • Yu, Hwanyeal (Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Yahya, Mohd-Syukri (Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Kim, Yonghee (Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST))
  • Received : 2015.09.14
  • Accepted : 2015.12.12
  • Published : 2016.04.25
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Reducing critical boron concentration in a commercial pressurized water reactor core offers many advantages in view of safety and economics. This paper presents a preliminary investigation of a reduced-boron pressurized water reactor core to achieve a clearly negative moderator temperature coefficient at hot zero power using the newly-proposed "Burnable absorber-Integrated Guide Thimble" (BigT) absorbers. The reference core is based on a commercial OPR1000 equilibrium configuration. The reduced-boron ORP1000 configuration was determined by simply replacing commercial gadolinia-based burnable absorbers with the optimized BigT-loaded design. The equilibrium cores in this study were directly searched via repetitive Monte Carlo depletion calculations until convergence. The results demonstrate that, with the same fuel management scheme as in the reference core, application of the BigT absorbers can effectively reduce the critical boron concentration at the beginning of cycle by about 65 ppm. More crucially, the analyses indicate promising potential of the reduced-boron OPR1000 core with the BigT absorbers, as its moderator temperature coefficient at the beginning of cycle is clearly more negative and all other vital neutronic parameters are within practical safety limits. All simulations were completed using the Monte Carlo Serpent code with the ENDF/B-VII.0 library.

Keywords

References

  1. S. Rippon, History of the PWR and its worldwide development, Energy Pol. 12 (1984) 259-265. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4215(84)90026-0
  2. Y. Oka, Nuclear Reactor Design, Springer, Japan, 2014, p. 127.
  3. D.G. Cacuci, Handbook of Nuclear Engineering, Springer, New York (NY), 2010, p. 1556.
  4. A. Galperin, M. Segev, A. Radkowsky, Substitution of the soluble boron reactivity control system of a pressurized water reactor by gadolinium burnable poisons, Nucl. Technol. 75 (1986) 127-133. https://doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A33855
  5. G.L. Fiorini, G.M. Gautier, Y. Bergamaschi, Feasibility studies of a soluble boron-free 900-MW (electric) PWR, safety systems: consequences of the partial or total elimination of soluble boron on plant safety and plant systems architecture, Nucl. Technol. 127 (1999) 239-258. https://doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A2999
  6. R.C. Jones, "Boron Dilution Reactivity Transients: A Regulatory Perspective", in: Proceedings of the OECD/NEA/CSNI Specialist Meeting on Boron Dilution Reactivity Transients, State College (PA), Oct 18-20, 1995.
  7. Elimination of Soluble Boron for a New PWR Design NP-6536, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto (CA), Product ID: NP-6536, 1989.
  8. Benchmark Matrix for Verification and Validation of the KARMA Code, S06NX08-A-2-TR-04 Rev. 2, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea), 2010.
  9. M.S. Yahya, H.Y. Yu, Y. Kim, Burnable absorber-integrated guide thimble (BigT) - I: design concept and neutronic characterization on the fuel assembly benchmarks, J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. (2015). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2015.1090937.
  10. Y. Kim, H.Y. Yu, M.S. Yahya, K.W. Lee, J.J. Sohn, H.H. Kim, I.H. Song, I.H. Bae, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KEPCO Engineering & Construction Company, Inc., Burnable absorber integrated control rod guide thimble, Korea Patent 10-1497893, Mar 5, 2015.
  11. Y. Kim, H.Y. Yu, M.S. Yahya, K.W. Lee, J.J. Sohn, H.H. Kim, I.H. Song, I.H. Bae, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KEPCO Engineering & Construction Company, Inc., Burnable absorber integrated control rod guide thimble, Korea Patent 10-1570473, Nov 20, 2015.
  12. M.S. Yahya, H.Y. Yu, Y. Kim, A burnable absorber-integrated control rod guide thimble for PWR,, Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc. 110 (2014) 593-594.
  13. H.Y. Yu, Y. Kim, Application of the BigT Burnable Absorber to an OPR1000 core for a low critical boron concentration, Trans. Korean Nucl. Soc. 46 (2014), 1CD-ROM.
  14. Nuclear Design Report for Yonggwang Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Cycle 6, KNF-Y3C6-00022, KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, 2000.
  15. K.H. Lee, S.Y. Park, C.C. Lee, Y.S. Yang, A neutronic feasibility study of an OPR1000 core design with boron-bearing fuel, Trans. Korean Nucl. Soc. 45 (2013), 1CD-ROM.
  16. J. Leppanen, Serpent-A Continuous Energy Monte Carlo Reactor Physics Burnup Calculation Code, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo (Finland), 2013.
  17. G.G. Kim, N.Z. Cho, Investigation of the sensitivity depletion laws for rhodium self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs), J. Korean Nucl. Soc. 33 (2001) 121-131.
  18. S.R. Moon, K.H. Cha, S.M. Bae, Comparative analysis for the measured and the predicted sensitivity of rhodium in-core detector, Trans. Korean Nucl. Soc. 44 (2012), 1CDROM.
  19. Y.B. Kim, T.Y. Yoon, Y.H. Park, C.O. Park, H.J. Kim, Functional Design Requirement for a Core Operating Limit Supervisory System for Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant, DP-10-17-01c, Korea Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd., 2005.

Cited by

  1. Nuclide composition non-uniformity in used nuclear fuel for considerations in pyroprocessing safeguards vol.50, pp.7, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2018.05.011
  2. Evaluation of nuclear material accountability by the probability of detection for loss of Pu (LOPu) scenarios in pyroprocessing vol.51, pp.1, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2018.08.015
  3. Neutronics design of VVER-1000 fuel assembly with burnable poison particles vol.51, pp.7, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2019.05.026