• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3516-3525
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• 2022

The high capture cross-section (𝜎_c) of Gadolinium (Gd-155 and Gd-157) causes reactivity penalty and swing at the initial stage of fuel burnup in Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). The present study is concerned with the feasibility of the combination of mixed burnable poison with both low and high 𝜎_c as an approach to minimize these effects. Two considered reference designs are fuel assemblies with 24 IBA rods of Gd₂O₃ and Er₂O₃ respectively. Models comprise nuclear fuel with a homogeneous mixture of Er₂O₃, AmO₂, SmO₂, and HfO₂ with Gd₂O₃ as well as the coating of PaO₂ and ZrB₂ on the Gd₂O₃ pellet's outer surface. The infinite multiplication factor was determined and reactivity was calculated considering 3% neutron leakage rate. All models except Er₂O₃ and SmO₂ showed expected results namely higher values of these parameters than the reference design of Gd₂O₃ at the early burnup period. The highest value was found for the model of PaO₂ and Gd₂O₃ followed by ZrB₂ and HfO₂. The cycle burnup, discharge burnup, and cycle length for three batch refueling were calculated using Linear Reactivity Model (LRM). The pin power distribution, energy-dependent neutron flux and Fuel Temperature Coefficient (FTC) were also studied. An optimization of model 1 was carried out to investigate effects of different isotopic compositions of Gd₂O₃ and absorber coating thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.447-448
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.341.1-341.1
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.767-776
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• 1991

Effects of the additions of SiB4 as burnable poison to UO2 on the green density, densification, interdependence between density-grain growth and microstructure of sintered UO2 were studied. UO2 pellets were sintered in flowing hydrogen, at temperature 1200, 1350, 1500, and 168$0^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours and at 168$0^{\circ}C$ for 0, 1, 3, and 10 hours, respectively. Green densities were in the range of about 4.5~5.4 g/㎤, and decreased as the amount of SiB4 increased when green pellets were made by with use of a double action press at 1000 kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$. The density of sintered UO2 pellets was around 92~94% of the theoretical density and did not change significantly as the amount of SiB2 addition increased. However, the density of sintered pellets decreased with the increase in SiB4. The grain growth could be characterized in terms of two stages: Grain growth occurred with the increasing density in the first stage, whereas the second stage was characterized by the grain growth without increasing of density. A liquid phase was observed at grain boundaries and grain edges in the microstructure of sintered UO2 pellets with 5000 ppm and 10,000 ppm SiB4. This liquid, possible formed at about 168$0^{\circ}C$, did not enhance the shrinkage, but appeared to accelarate the grain growth. It seems that the second stage grain growth was due to the presence of pressurized insoluble trapped gas in isolated pores.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.193-203
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• 1993

A new heuristic method for loading pattern search has been developed to overcome short-comings of the algorithmic approach. To reduce the size of vast solution space, general shuffling rules, a regionwise shuffling method, and a pattern grouping method were introduced. The entropy theory was applied to classify possible loading patterns into groups with similarity between them. The pattern search program was implemented with use of the PROLOG language. A two-group nodal code MEDIUM-2D was used for analysis of power distribution in the core. The above mentioned methodology has been tested to show effectiveness in reducing of solution space down to a few hundred pattern groups. Burnable poison rods were then arranged in each pattern group in accordance with burnable poison distribution rules, which led to further reduction of the solution space to several scores of acceptable pattern groups. The method of maximizing cycle length(MCL) and minimizing power-peaking factor(MPF) were applied to search for specific useful loading patterns from the acceptable pattern groups. Thus, several specific loading patterns that have low power-peaking factor and large cycle length were successfully searched from the selected pattern groups.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.3095-3105
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• 2022

Solid Microencapsulated Fuel (SMF) is a type of solid fuel rod design that disperses TRISO coated fuel particles directly into a kind of matrix. SMF is expected to provide improved performance because of the elimination of cladding tube and associated failure mechanisms. This study focused on the neutronics and some of the fuel cycle characteristics of SMF by using OpenMC. Two kinds of SMFs have been designed and evaluated - fuel particles dispersed into a silicon carbide matrix and fuel particles dispersed into a zirconium matrix. A 7×7 fuel assembly with increased rod diameter transformed from the standard NHR200-II 9×9 array was also introduced to increase the heavy metal inventory. A preliminary study of two kinds of burnable poisons (Erbia & Gadolinia) in two forms (BISO and QUADRISO particles) was also included. This study found that SMF requires about 12% enriched UN TRISO particles to match the cycle length of standard fuel when loaded in NHR200-II, which is about 7% for SMF with increased rod diameter. Feedback coefficients are less negative through the life of SMF than the reference. And it is estimated that the average center temperature of fuel kernel at fuel rod centerline is about 60 K below that of reference in this paper.