A peer-reviewed journal published by K. N. Toosi University of Technology

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Physics Department, Imam Hossein Comprehensive University, Tehran, Iran

2 Engineering Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Today, small modular reactors have received considerable attention in various countries. The ABV reactor is a PWR small modular reactor that has various applications. This reactor has been used silumin metal fuel with a 16.5% enrichment. In the present work, the efficiency of the conventional UO2 fuel with enrichment of less than 10% to be used as the main fuel of ABV reactor has been investigated, and four different patterns for the reactor core have been proposed. To perform the calculations, the ABV reactor is modeled using the PARCS neutronic code and the RELAP5 thermohydraulic code. Finally, using computational codes for the proposed patterns of the reactor core, various quantities including reactor cycle length, reactivity, burnup, power distribution, fuel, coolant temperature distribution, and feedback coefficients have been calculated.

Highlights

• The criticality calculation of the ABV, a PWR small modular reactor, using low enrichment fuel is investigated.
• The neutronic parameters for the ABV reactor are calculated using low enrichment fuel.
• With 6% enrichment, the length of the reactor cycle and burnup are 2100 days and 31 GWd/T, respectively.

Keywords

Agency, I. A. E. (2014). Advances in Small Modular Reactor Technology Developments: A Supplement to the IAEA Advanced Reactors Information System (ARIS). IAEA.
Beliavskii, S. V., Nesterov, V. N., Laas, R. A., et al. (2020). Effect of fuel nuclide composition on the fuel lifetime of reactor KLT-40S. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 360:110524.
Carelli, M. D., Garrone, P., Locatelli, G., et al. (2010). Economic features of integral, modular, small-to-medium size reactors. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 52(4):403–414.
Downar, T., Xu, Y., Kozlowski, T., et al. (2006). PARCS v2. 7 US NRC core neutronics simulator user manual. Purdue University.
Geist, A., Beguelin, A., Dongarra, J., et al. (1994). PVM: Parallel virtual machine: a users’ guide and tutorial for networked parallel computing. MIT press.
IAEA (2007). Status of small reactor designs without on-site refuelling. Nuclear Energy Series.
Ingersoll, D. T. and Carelli, M. D. (2020). Handbook of small modular nuclear reactors. Woodhead Publishing.
Karimi, J., Shayesteh, M., and Zangian, M. (2021a). Core calculations for small modular reactor during burnup cycle. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, pages 1–18.
Karimi, J., Shayesteh, M., and Zangian, M. (2021b). Investigation of UO2 fuel efficiency for ABV small modular reactor. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, pages 1–19.
Khan, S. U.-D., Danish, S. N., Haider, S., et al. (2015). Theoretical calculation simulation studies of abv nuclear reactor coupled with desalination system. International Journal of Energy Research, 39(11):1554–1563.
Kim, K. K., Lee, W., Choi, S., et al. (2014). SMART: the first licensed advanced integral reactor. Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, 8(1):94.
Modro, S., Fisher, J., Weaver, K., et al. (2003). Multiapplication small light water reactor final report. Technical report, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID .
Ransom, V. H., Trapp, J., and Wagner, R. (2001). RELAP5/MOD3. 3 code manual Volume IV: models and correlations. Information Systems Laboratories, IR, Maryland Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States.
Tashakor, S., Zarifi, E., and Naminazari, M. (2017). Neutronic simulation of CAREM-25 small modular reactor.
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 99:185–195. Yoon, D. S., Jo, H., Fu, W., et al. (2017). MELCOR analysis of OSU multi-application small light water reactor (MASLWR) experiment. Nuclear Technology, 198(3):277–292.