Nuclear and Thermal Design for High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (GTHTR300C) Using MOX Fuel

Design studies of the hydrogen cogeneration high temperature gas cooled reactor (GTHTR300C), which can produce both on electric power and hydrogen, have proceeded in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In future, it will be obliged to operate using not enriched uranium but plutonium to coexist with fast reactors after the full deployment of a fast reactor cycle. Therefore, a nuclear and thermal design has been performed to confirm the feasibility of the reactor core using Mixed-Oxide (MOX) fuel. The reactor core with operation period of 450days and average burn-up of 123 GWd/ton for discharged fuel was designed. The reactor core met safety requirements of the maximum fuel temperature of less than 1,400°C during normal operation, the maximum power density of less than 13 W/cm3, shutdown margin of more than 1.0%Δk/kk′ and negative reactivity coefficient. The results proved that it is possible to operate the GTHTR300C using MOX fuels without consuming natural uranium resources.