Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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FAST (floating absorber for safety at transient) for the improved safety of sodium-cooled burner fast reactors

  • Kim, Chihyung (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Jang, Seongdong (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 : 2020.01.27
  • Accepted : 2020.12.04
  • Published : 2021.06.25
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Abstract

This paper presents floating absorber for safety at transient (FAST) which is a passive safety device for sodium-cooled fast reactors with a positive coolant temperature coefficient. Working principle of the FAST makes it possible to insert negative reactivity passively in case of temperature rise or voiding of coolant. Behaviors of the FAST in conventional oxide fuel-loaded and metallic fuel-loaded SFRs are investigated assuming anticipated transients without scram (ATWS) scenarios. Unprotected loss of flow (ULOF), unprotected loss of heat sink (ULOHS), unprotected transient overpower (UTOP) and unprotected chilled inlet temperature (UCIT) scenarios are simulated at end of life (EOL) conditions of the oxide and the metallic SFR cores, and performance of the FAST to improve the reactor safety is analyzed in terms of reactivity feedback components, reactor power and maximum temperatures of fuel and coolant. It is shown that FAST is able to improve the safety margin of conventional burner-type SFRs during ULOF, ULOHS, UTOP and UCIT.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean government NRF-2016R1A5A1013919.

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  1. Improved FAST Device for Inherent Safety of Oxide-Fueled Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors vol.14, pp.15, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/en14154610