Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Multi-batch core design study for innovative small modular reactor based on centrally-shielded burnable absorber

  • Steven Wijaya (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Xuan Ha Nguyen (University of Cambridge, the Old Schools) ;
  • Yunseok Jeong (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Yonghee Kim (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST))
  • Received : 2023.07.31
  • Accepted : 2023.11.06
  • Published : 2024.03.25
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Abstract

Various core designs with multi-batch fuel management (FM) are proposed and optimized for an innovative small modular reactor (iSMR), focusing on enhancing the inherent safety and neutronic performance. To achieve soluble-boron-free (SBF) operation, cylindrical centrally-shielded burnable absorbers (CSBAs) are utilized, reducing the burnup reactivity swing in both two- and three-batch FMs. All 69 fuel assemblies (FAs) are loaded with 2-cylindrical CSBA. Furthermore, the neutron economy is improved by deploying a truly-optimized PWR (TOP) lattice with a smaller fuel radius, optimized for neutron moderation under the SBF condition. The fuel shuffling and CSBA loading patterns are proposed for both 2- and 3-batch FM with the aim to lower the core leakage and achieve favorable power profiles. Numerical results show that both FM configurations achieve a small reactivity swing of about 1000 pcm and the power distributions are within the design criteria. The average discharge burnup in the two-batch core is comparable to three-batch commercial PWR like APR-1400. The proposed checker-board CR pattern with extended fingers effectively assures cold shutdown in the two-batch FM scenario, while in the three-batch FM, three N-1 scenarios are failed. The whole evaluation process is conducted using Monte Carlo Serpent 2 code in conjunction with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear library.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIP) (NRF2016R1A5A1013919).

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