Optimized Core Design and Fuel Management of a Pebble-Bed Type Nuclear Reactor

The core design of a pebble-bed type Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is optimized, aiming for an increase of the coolant outlet temperature to 1000 C, while retaining its inherent safety features. The VHTR has been selected by the international Generation IV research initiative as one of the six most promising nuclear reactor concepts that are expected to enter service in the second half of the 21st century. The high coolant outlet temperature results in a high plant efficiency and would allow for the coupling with a hydrogen production plant. However, the resulting increase in the peak fuel temperature could be detrimental for the fuel integrity. The fuel temperature during normal operation and accident scenarios has been investigated for a reference VHTR design by coupling computer codes that model the neutronics and the thermal-hydraulics of the core. Code validation has been performed using steady state and dynamic experiments of the HTR-10 and AVR reactors. The fuel temperature determines the mechanical stresses in the fuel coating layers, which form the containment of the fission products. The coating stresses and the resulting failure probability have been analyzed for the desired fuel temperatures in the reference design. It was found that an increase in the operating temperature would be allowable with respect to the fuel failure probability during normal operation. However, the high peak temperatures during accident scenarios, i.e. a Depressurized Loss Of Forced Cooling incident, calls for an improved design. Alternative core designs that use an optimized pebble (re)loading pattern and/or a modification of the coolant flow direction can be operated at lower fuel temperatures, thereby increasing the safety margins of the coating stresses.

[1]  Hans D. Gougar,et al.  Optimal Moderation in the Pebble-Bed Reactor for Enhanced Passive Safety and Improved Fuel Utilization , 2004 .

[2]  Masahiro Ishihara,et al.  Lifetime evaluation of graphite components for HTGRs , 2004 .

[3]  A. Koster,et al.  PBMR design for the future , 2003 .

[4]  Chia-Jung Hsu.  Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow , 1981 .

[5]  H. Gerwin,et al.  The TINTE Modular Code System for Computational Simulation of Transient Processes in the Primary Circuit of a Pebble-Bed High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor , 1989 .

[6]  E. C. Verkerk,et al.  Dynamics of the Pebble-Bed Nuclear Reactor in the Direct Brayton Cycle , 2000 .

[7]  Zhengpei Luo,et al.  Fuel management of the HTR-10 including the equilibrium state and the running-in phase , 2002 .

[8]  Zongxin Wu,et al.  The design features of the HTR-10 , 2002 .

[9]  Ryutaro Hino,et al.  Development of Hydrogen Production Technology by Thermochemical Water Splitting IS Process Pilot Test Plan , 2007 .

[10]  Hans D. Gougar,et al.  Investigation of bounds on particle packing in pebble-bed high temperature reactors , 2006 .

[11]  W. Scherer,et al.  Treatment of the upper cavity in a pebble-bed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor by diffusion theory , 1987 .

[12]  Danny Lathouwers,et al.  Coupled neutronics / thermal hydraulics calculations for High Temperature Reactors with the DALTON - THERMIX code system , 2008 .

[13]  J. Bockris.  Hydrogen , 2011, Materials.

[14]  Han Gyu,et al.  PARCS: PURDUE ADVANCED REACTOR CORE SIMULATOR Thomas J. Downar Douglas A. Barber 1 R. Matthew Miller Chang-Ho Lee Tomasz Kozlowski Deokjung Lee Yunlin Xu Jun Gan , 2002 .

[15]  J. W. Prados,et al.  MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR PREDICTING COATED-PARTICLE BEHAVIOR. , 1965 .

[16]  S. Timoshenko,et al.  Theory of elasticity , 1975 .

[17]  A. Ougouag,et al.  Mechanical stresses in fuel particles and graphite in high temperature reactors , 2007 .

[18]  Kostadin Ivanov,et al.  Summary of comparison and analysis of results from exercises 1 and 2 of the OECD PBMR coupled neutronics/thermal hydraulics transient benchmark , 2006 .

[19]  Zuying Gao,et al.  Transient tests on blower trip and rod removal at the HTR-10 , 2006 .

[20]  Hirofumi Ohashi,et al.  A pilot test plan of the thermochemical water-splitting iodine-sulfur process , 2004 .

[21]  Charles W. Forsberg,et al.  Hydrogen, nuclear energy, and the advanced high-temperature reactor , 2003 .

[22]  W.F.G. van Rooijen,et al.  Improving Fuel Cycle Design and Safety Characteristics of a Gas Cooled Fast Reactor , 2006 .

[23]  Dominique Hittner,et al.  RAPHAEL, A EUROPEAN PROJECT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HTR/VHTR TECHNOLOGY FOR INDUSTRIAL PROCESS HEAT SUPPLY AND COGENERATION , 2006 .

[24]  U. S. Doe.  A Technology Roadmap for Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems , 2002 .

[25]  R. Hino,et al.  38. R&D on hydrogen production by high-temperature electrolysis of steam , 2004 .

[26]  Abderrafi M. Ougouag,et al.  Optimization of HTR fuel design to reduce fuel particle failures , 2006 .

[27]  G. Miller.  STRESSES IN A SPHERICAL PRESSURE VESSEL UNDERGOING CREEP AND DIMENSIONAL CHANGES , 1995 .

[28]  Kaoru Onuki,et al.  A demonstration study on a closed-cycle hydrogen production by the thermochemical water-splitting iodine–sulfur process , 2004 .

[29]  Jim E. Morel,et al.  A Two-Grid Acceleration Scheme for the Multigroup Sn Equations with Neutron Upscattering , 1993 .

[30]  C. A. Rennie.  Achievements of the Dragon project , 1978 .

[31]  Donald R. Olander,et al.  Fundamental Aspects of Nuclear Reactor Fuel Elements , 1976 .

[32]  Y. Kato,et al.  Medium temperature carbon dioxide gas turbine reactor , 2004 .

[33]  J. E. Morel,et al.  A fission-source acceleration technique for time-dependent even-parity Sn calculations , 1994 .

[34]  B. Boer,et al.  Development of a stress analysis code for TRISO particles in HTRs , 2008 .

[35]  Zuoyi Zhang,et al.  Economic potential of modular reactor nuclear power plants based on the Chinese HTR-PM project , 2007 .

[36]  Xingqing Jing,et al.  Prediction calculations and experiments for the first criticality of the 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor-Test Module , 2002 .

[37]  G. Miller.  Considerations of Irradiation-Induced Transient Creep in Fuel Particle Modeling , 1995 .

[38]  T. V. D. Hagen,et al.  Optimization of a radially cooled pebble bed reactor , 2010 .

[39]  W. Stacey.  Nuclear Reactor Physics , 2001 .

[40]  Lei Shi,et al.  Thermal hydraulic calculation of the HTR-10 for the initial and equilibrium core , 2002 .

[41]  Hans D. Gougar,et al.  DESIGN OF PEBBLE-BED REACTORS USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS , 2004 .

[42]  T. Liang,et al.  A review of TRISO-coated particle nuclear fuel performance models , 2006 .

[43]  R. Cook,et al.  Advanced Mechanics of Materials , 1985 .

[44]  J. Gittus,et al.  IRRADIATION DAMAGE IN GRAPHITE. , 1972 .

[45]  Tatsuo Oku,et al.  Irradiation creep properties and strength of a fine-grained isotropic graphite , 1990 .

[46]  J. Kloosterman,et al.  Static design of a liquid-salt-cooled pebble bed reactor (LSPBR) , 2007 .

[47]  Ehud Greenspan,et al.  DETERMINATION OF THE EQUILIBRIUM COMPOSITION OF CORES WITH CONTINUOUS FUEL FEED AND REMOVAL USING MOCUP , 2007 .

[48]  Kazuhiko Kunitomi,et al.  Overview of HTTR design features , 2004 .

[49]  K. Verfondern,et al.  Irradiation performance and modeling of HTR-10 coated fuel particles , 2006 .

[50]  R. Ballinger,et al.  TIMCOAT: An Integrated Fuel Performance Model for Coated Particle Fuel , 2004 .

[51]  Heinz Nabielek,et al.  Production of carbon monoxide during burn-up of UO2 kerneled HTR fuel particles , 1982 .

[52]  Charles W. Forsberg,et al.  The advanced high-temperature reactor: High-temperature fuel, liquid salt coolant, liquid-metal-reactor plant , 2005 .

[53]  D. Petti,et al.  Updated solution for stresses and displacements in TRISO-coated fuel particles , 2008 .

[54]  C. L. Rickard,et al.  High-temperature gas-cooled reactors , 1968 .

[55]  J. Kloosterman.  Application of boron and gadolinium burnable poison particles in UO2 and PUO2 fuels in HTRs , 2003 .

[56]  V. S. Vaidhyanathan,et al.  Transport phenomena , 2005, Experientia.

[57]  James L. Everett,et al.  Peach bottom unit no. 1: A high performance helium cooled nuclear power plant , 1978 .

[58]  R. van Geemert,et al.  Research reactor in-core fuel management optimization by application of multiple cyclic interchange algorithms , 1998 .

[59]  Kostadin Ivanov,et al.  Utilization of two-dimensional deterministic transport methods for analysis of pebble-bed reactors , 2007 .

[60]  Luigi Massimo,et al.  Physics of High-Temperature Reactors , 1976 .

[61]  Gunter H. Lohnert,et al.  The Modular High-Temperature Reactor , 1983 .

[62]  J. Hartvigsen,et al.  High-Temperature Electrolysis , 2007 .

[63]  Thomas Seelig,et al.  Fracture Mechanics: With an Introduction to Micromechanics , 2006 .

[64]  Jonghwa Chang,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF MARS-GCR/V1 FOR THERMAL-HYDRAULIC SAFETY ANALYSIS OF GAS- COOLED REACTOR SYSTEMS , 2005 .

[65]  Kazuhiro Sawa,et al.  Irradiation Experiment on ZrC-Coated Fuel Particles for High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors , 2000 .

[66]  Fu Li,et al.  Design aspects of the Chinese modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor HTR-PM , 2006 .

[67]  Guenter Lohnert.  Topical issue on “Japan's HTTR” , 2004 .

[68]  G. Melese,et al.  Thermal and Flow Design of Helium-Cooled Reactors , 1985 .

[69]  Gregory K. Miller,et al.  Consideration of the effects on fuel particle behavior from shrinkage cracks in the inner pyrocarbon layer , 2001 .

[70]  O. W. Hermann,et al.  ORIGEN-S : SCALE System Module to Calculate Fuel Depletion, Actinide Transmutation, Fission Product Buidup and Decay, and Associated Radiation Source Terms , 2000 .

[71]  G. H. Lohnert,et al.  Technical design features and essentiaL safety-related properties of the HTR-module , 1990 .

[72]  William Bickford,et al.  Advanced mechanics of materials , 1998 .

[73]  Jan Leen Kloosterman,et al.  Analytical Calculation of the Average Dancoff Factor for a Fuel Kernel in a Pebble Bed High-Temperature Reactor , 1999 .

[74]  K. Ott,et al.  Introductory Nuclear Reactor Dynamics , 1985 .

[75]  Andreas Pautz,et al.  DORT-TD: A Transient Neutron Transport Code with Fully Implicit Time Integration , 2003 .

[76]  Gregory K. Miller,et al.  Analytical solution for stresses in TRISO-coated particles , 1993 .

[77]  J. Aihara,et al.  Fabrication of uniform ZrC coating layer for the coated fuel particle of the very high temperature reactor , 2008 .

[78]  W. K. Terry,et al.  Direct Deterministic Method for Neutronics Analysis and Computation of Asymptotic Burnup Distribution in a Recirculating Pebble-Bed Reactor , 2002 .

[79]  Shusaku Shiozawa,et al.  Development of a Coated Fuel Particle Failure Model under High Burnup Irradiation , 1996 .

[80]  E. Bende.  Plutonium Burning in a Pebble-Bed Type High Temperature Nuclear Reactor , 2000 .

[81]  Andrew C. Kadak,et al.  Pebble Flow Experiments For Pebble Bed Reactors , 2004 .

[82]  Shuoping Zhong,et al.  Temperature Measuring System of the In-core Components for Chinese 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor , 2002 .