Improving Fuel Cycle Design and Safety Characteristics of a Gas Cooled Fast Reactor

156 Pages·2006·2.95 MB·English

Improving Fuel Cycle Design and Safety Characteristics of
a Gas Cooled Fast Reactor
TheresearchdescribedinthisthesiswasperformedinthesectionPhysicsofNuclear
Reactors(PNR),ofthedepartmentRadiation,Radionuclides&Reactors(R3),oftheDelft
UniversityofTechnology,Delft,TheNetherlands.
Visitingaddress:Mekelweg15,2629JBDelft,TheNetherlands.
Support:PartsoftheworkpresentedinthisthesiswerefinancedundertheEuropean
Commission/EURATOM6thFrameworkProgramme’GasCooledFastReactorSpecific
TargetedREsearchProgramme’(GCFR-STREP),contractnumber012773(FI6O),effective
March2005-February2009.
Improving Fuel Cycle Design and Safety Characteristics of
a Gas Cooled Fast Reactor
Proefschrift
terverkrijgingvandegraad van doctor
aan deTechnischeUniversiteitDelft,
op gezag van deRector Magnificusprof. dr. ir. J.T.Fokkema,
voorzittervanhet CollegevoorPromoties,
inhet openbaarteverdedigen
opdinsdag12december 2006om12:30uur
door:
WillemFrederik GeertVAN ROOIJEN
Natuurkundigingenieur,
geboren teHaarlem
Ditproefschriftisgoedgekeurddoordepromotoren:
Prof.dr. ir. T.H.J.J.vanderHagen
Prof.[em]dr. ir. H.vanDam
Toegevoegdpromotor:
Dr. ir. J.L.Kloosterman
Samenstellingpromotiecommissie:
RectorMagnificus,voorzitter
Prof.dr. ir. T.H.J.J.vanderHagen TechnischeUniversiteitDelft
Prof.[em]dr. ir. H.vanDam TechnischeUniversiteitDelft
Dr. ir. J.L.Kloosterman TechnischeUniversiteitDelft
Prof.W.M.Stacey,Ph.D. GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology,USA
Prof.dr. M.J.vandenHoven TechnischeUniversiteitDelft
Prof.dr. ir. A.H.M.Verkooijen TechnischeUniversiteitDelft
Dr. G.Rimpault CEACadarache,France
(cid:13)c 2006,W.F.G.vanRooijenandIOSPress
Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutpriorpermissionfromthepublisher.
ISBN1-58603-696-3
Keywords: Gas Cooled Fast Reactor, Generation IV Nuclear Reactor, Closed Fuel Cycle,
NuclidePerturbationTheory,PassiveSafety,LithiumInjectionModule
PublishedanddistributedbyIOSPressundertheimprintDelftUniversityPress
Publisher
IOSPress
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PRINTEDINTHENETHERLANDS
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Nuclearreactortypesrelevantforthisthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Thenuclearfuelcycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Safetyoffastreactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 TheGenerationIVinitiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 Contentsofthisthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 HistoryofGCFRdevelopment 13
2.1 Germany:theGasBreederMemorandum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 US:GeneralAtomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Europe:theGasBreederReactorAssociation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 TheSovietUnion:dissociatingcoolant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5 UK:ETGBR/EGCR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.6 Japan:prismaticfuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.7 ThefutureofGCFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 BurnupandfuelcyclestudyforaGCFRusingCoatedParticlefuel 25
3.1 FuelforaGasCooledFastReactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Reprocessingstrategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 CoatedparticlefuelforaGasCooledFastReactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.4 Fuelsubassemblydesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.5 BurnupstudyofthecoatedparticleGCFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.6 Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.7 Extendedtimecalculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 MovingontoGFR600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.9 Positivereactivityswingandtheperformanceparameterh . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.10 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.A Appendix:Temperatureprofileinafuelpebble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4 BreedingGainfortheclosednuclearfuelcycle:theory 53
4.1 BreedingRatioandBreedingGain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.2 Definitionofw~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.3 Reprocessingformalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.4 Nuclideperturbationtheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
v
Contents
4.5 Limitationsofperturbationtheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.6 Applicationsofperturbationtheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5 Breedinggainfortheclosednuclearfuelcycle: application 67
5.1 Reactormodelandcalculationaltools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2 Comparisonwithexistingdefinitionsofw~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.3 Illustrationsofadjointtransmutationcalculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.4 BreedingGaincalculationsontheGFR600fuelcycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.5 Longtermbehaviorofbreedinggainandk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
eff
5.6 Checkingthevalidityofthequasi-staticapproximationforw~ . . . . . . . . . 79
5.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6 Passivereactivitycontrol:LithiumInjectionModule 83
6.1 Passivereactivitycontrol:optionsandconstraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.2 Neutronicdesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.3 ThermalhydraulicmodelofGFR600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.4 Resultsoftransientsimulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7 Conclusionsanddiscussion 105
A TheLOWFATcode 109
A.1 Obtainingthenucleardataforthetransmutationmatrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A.2 Thestiffnessproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A.3 ComparisonbetweenORIGEN-SandLOWFAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
A.4 Adjointtransmutationcalculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
B Propertiesofceramics 113
B.1 Definitionandbasicpropertiesofceramics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
B.2 Fracturebehaviorofceramics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
B.3 Thermalbehavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
B.4 Plasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
B.5 Fiberreinforcedceramics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
B.6 Interactionofneutronswithceramics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Bibliography 123
ListofSymbols 129
ListofPublications 135
Summary 137
Samenvatting 139
vi
Contents
Acknowledgments 141
CurriculumVitae 143
vii
Contents
viii
List of Figures
1.1 Energydependenceofηforseveralfissilenuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Energydependenceofαforseveralnuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 FeasibledesignregionforGenerationIVGCFRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 CorelayoutoftheGeneralAtomicsGCFR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 CrosssectionalviewoftheGBR-4PCRV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 FuelassembliesforGBR-2andGBR-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 GBR-4fuelassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.5 JAEAGenerationIVGCFRprismaticfuelblock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.6 Generation2400MWthGCFRprimarycircuitoverview . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.1 TRISOcoatedparticlefuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.2 TheHollowSpherefuelelement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 Annularcylinderfuelassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.4 CorelayoutforHollowSphereGCFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5 Calculationalpathirradiationcalculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.6 Typicaltimedependenceofk forcoatedparticleGCFR . . . . . . . . . . . 39
eff
3.7 FluxandabsorptioncrosssectionforCPGCFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 TypicalevolutionofPu-isotopesduringirradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.10 FluxspectraMOxfuel,MAfuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.11 k ,ρasfunctionoftimeforMAfuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
eff
3.13 Graphitelambdaasafunctionoftemperatureandneutronfluence . . . . . . 51
4.1 IllustrativeexampleofR=hw~,N~(t)i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2 Materialflowinthereprocessingfuelcycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1 GFR600fuelassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Threeadjointsfor241Pu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.3 Weightedadjointsfor238U,237Npand241Am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4 k andRformultiplerecyclingwithtwofuelcyclestrategies. . . . . . . . . 78
eff
5.5 CheckofthequasistaticapproximationforBG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.1 GenerationIVGCFRcoreoverview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.2 LithiumInjectionModuledesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ix
ListofFigures
6.3 GFR600corelayoutwithLIMs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.4 GFR600primarycircuitlayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.5 CATHARE2modeloftheGFR600core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.6 CATHARE2modeloftheGFR600coreandDHRcircuits . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.7 DecayheatcurveforGFR600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.8 PowerduringunprotectedLossofFlow(ULOF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.9 TemperatureduringunprotectedLossofFlow(ULOF) . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.10 PowerduringLossofFlowwithLIMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.11 TemperatureduringLossofFlowwithLIMs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.12 LongtermreactivityfollowingLossofFlowGFR600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.13 LongtermreactivityafterLossofFlow,using1or3DHRcircuits . . . . . . 100
6.14 PowerduringControlRodWithdrawalwithLIMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.15 TemperatureduringControlRodWithdrawalwithLIMs . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.16 PowerforControlRodEjection,withLIMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.17 TemperatureforControlRodEjectionwithLIMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
A.1 ComparisonofforwardcalculationsLOWFATvs. ORIGEN-S . . . . . . . . 111
A.2 ExampleadjointtransmutationcalculationwithLOWFAT. . . . . . . . . . . 112
B.1 Crosssectionof(n,p)reactionfornitrogen-15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
B.2 Lennard-Jonespotentialforceramicmaterial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
B.3 Stressintensificationatthetipsofacrackinaceramicmaterial . . . . . . . . 117
B.4 Thermalshockinaceramicmaterial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
B.5 Plasticityofceramicmaterials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
B.6 Reinforcedceramicsforextrastrength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
x