• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.10
• /
• pp.2274-2284
• /
• 2020

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Code "ANICCA" has been developed by SCK•CEN to answer particular questions about the Belgian nuclear fleet. However, the wide range of capabilities of the code make it also useful for international or regional studies that include advanced technologies and strategies of cycle. This paper shows the main features of the code and the facilities that can be simulated. Additionally, a comparison between several codes and ANICCA has also been made to verify the performance of the code by means of a simulation proposed in the last NEA (OECD) Benchmark Study. Finally, a case study of the Belgian nuclear fuel cycle phase out has been carried out to show the possible impact of the transmutation of the minor actinides on the nuclear waste by the use of an Accelerator Driven System also known as ADS. Results show that ANICCA accomplishes its main purpose of simulating the scenarios giving similar outcomes to other codes. Regarding the case study, results show a reduction of more than 60% of minor actinides in the Belgian nuclear cycle when using an ADS, reducing significantly the radiotoxicity and decay heat of the high-level waste and facilitating its management.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.552-553
• /
• 2011

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.683-690
• /
• 2007

Because of increasing concerns regarding global warming and the longevity of oil and gas reserves, the importance of nuclear energy as a major source of sustainable energy is gaining recognition worldwide. To make nuclear energy truly sustainable, it is necessary to ensure not only the sustainability of the fuel supply but also the sustained availability of waste repositories, especially those for high-level radioactive waste (HLW). From this perspective, the effort to maximize the waste loading density in a given repository is important for easing repository capacity problems. In most cases, the loading of a repository is controlled by the decay heat of the emplaced waste. In this paper, a comparison of the decay heat characteristics of HLW is made among the various fuel cycle options. It is suggested that, for a future fast breeder reactor (FBR) cycle, the removal and burning of minor actinides (MA) would significantly reduce the heat load in waste and would allow for a reduction of repository size by half.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 1998.05a
• /
• pp.118-123
• /
• 1998

The neurotics analysis of a liquid metal reactor fur burning minor actinides has shown that uncertainties in the nuclear data of several key minor actinide isotopes can introduce large uncertainties in the predicted performance of the core. A comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty analysis was performed on a 1200 MWth actinide burner designed for a low burnup reactivity swing, negative doppler coefficient, and low sodium void worth. Sensitivities were generated using depletion perturbaton methods for the equilibrium cycle of the reactor and covariance data was taken ENDF-B/V and other published sources. The relative uncertainties in the burnup swing, doppler coefficient, and void worth were conservatively estimated to be 180%, 91%, and 46%, respectively.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.7-12
• /
• 2012

Spent fuels are discharged from nuclear reactors as a result of power generations. The spent fuels would be considered as a useful resources because the main constituent is uranium and some other actinides are included in them. In order to utilize the resources chemical processes should be developed to treat the spent fuels and obtain uranium and other actinides to be fueled in a fast reactor. The technologies are categorized into wet and dry processes. In this study, the current status of such technologies is summarized to give a insight and a deep understanding on nuclear fuel cycles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.196-202
• /
• 2004

KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) is at present preparing a preliminary performance assessment to set up the HLW disposal concept of Korea. The solubility of the radionuclides contained in HLW is necessary as a source term in order to predict their potential migration in both the near and far fields. The solubility of actinides (Th, Am, U, Np and Pu) for a reference deep groundwater of Korea has been calculated using a geochemical code with thermodynamic data selected by a peer review of existing thermodynamic databases and literature. The solubilities from the experimental study and/or field observations from natural analogue studies are compared. The sensitivity of solubility to the variability of three main parameters of groundwater (pH, Eh, and carbonate concentration) is also investigated. The results of the sensitivity analysis show that the solubility of actinides strongly depends on the parameters considered. Within the range of parameter values studied (pH=7 to 10, Eh=-0.4 to -0.1V, and carbonate concentration=1.E-5 to 1.E-2 mol/L), the solubility of each actinide exists between 1.4E-10 and 1.6E-6 mol/L for Am, 4.9E-9 and 2.8E-6 mol/L for Th, 3.2E-9 and 5.7E-4 mol/L for U, 1.1E-9 and 1.0E-7 mol/L for Np, and 4.0E-11 and 2.8E-6 mol/L for Pu, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2022

This study discusses the effect of using ²³²Th instead of ²³⁸U on the neutronic characteristics and the main operating parameters of the pressurized water reactor (PWR). MCNPX version 2.7 was used to compare the neutronic characteristics of UO₂ with (Th, ²³⁵U)O₂ and (Th, ²³³U) O₂. Firstly, the infinity multiplication factor (K_inf), thermal neutron flux, and power distribution have been studied for the investigated fuel types. Secondly, the effect of Gd₂O₃ and Er₂O₃ on the K_inf and on the radial thermal neutron flux and thermal power has been investigated to distinguish which of them is more suitable than the other in reactivity management. Thirdly, to illustrate the effectiveness of ²³²Th in decreasing the inventory of both the actinides and non-actinides, the concentration of plutonium (Pu) isotopes and minor actinides (MAs) has been simulated with the fuel burnup. Besides, due to their large thermal neutron absorption cross-section, the concentrations of ¹³⁵Xe, ¹⁴⁹Sm, and ¹⁵¹Sm with the fuel burnup have been investigated. Finally, the main safety parameters such as the reactivity worth of the control rods (ρ_CR), the effective delayed neutron fraction β_eff, and the Doppler reactivity coefficient (DRC) were calculated to determine to which extent these fuel types achieve the acceptable limits.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2018.11a
• /
• pp.181-182
• /
• 2018

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.26 no.11
• /
• pp.1692-1694
• /
• 2005

Spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed commercially by the chemical process to recover U and Pu. Recently, new salt-free reagents to separate plutonium and neptunium from uranium suitable for use in a single cycle flowsheet have been developed. Acetohydroxamic acid $(CH_3CONHOH)$ has been taken much interest in as a complexing agent capable of selective stripping of tetravalent actinides from U(VI) when actinides are present in the solvent stream of the advanced PUREX process. Additionally acetohydroxamic acid will rapidly reduce Np(VI) to inextractable Np(V) thus allowing the separation of Np from U. In this study, the rate equation for the reduction of Np(VI) to Np(V) in nitric acid aqueous solution has been determined as: $-[NpO_2^{2+}]$/dt = $k[NpO_2^{2+}]$[AHA] with k = 191.2 ${\pm}$ 11.2 $M^{-1}s^{-1}$ at 25 ${\pm}$ 0.5 ${^{\circ}C}$ and $[HNO_3]$ = 1.0 M. Comparison with other reductants available in the literature, acetohydroxamic acid is a strong one for $NpO_2^{2+}$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.9
• /
• pp.1907-1916
• /
• 2020

In this work, the depletion capability implemented in Monte Carlo code MCS is investigated to predict the isotopic compositions of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). By comparison of MCS calculation results to post irradiation examination (PIE) data obtained from one pressurized water reactor (PWR), the validation of this capability is conducted. The depletion analysis is performed with the ENDF/B-VII.1 library and a fuel assembly model. The transmutation equation is solved by the Chebyshev Rational Approximation Method (CRAM) with a depletion chain of 3820 isotopes. 18 actinides and 19 fission products are analyzed in 14 SNF samples. The effect of statistical uncertainties on the calculated number densities is discussed. On average, most of the actinides and fission products analyzed are predicted within ±6% of the experiment. MCS depletion results are also compared to other depletion codes based on publicly reported information in literature. The code-to-code analysis shows comparable accuracy. Overall, it is demonstrated that the depletion capability in MCS can be reliably applied in the prediction of SNF isotopic inventory.