Neutronic features of the GT-MHR reactor

Kodochigov, N; Sukharev, Yu. P.; Marova, E. V.; Ponomarev-Stepnoy, N.N.; Glushkov, E. S.; Fomichenko, P. A.

doi:10.1016/s0029-5493(03)00010-4

Cited by 44 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…Large reactivity margins in the first year of operation can be handled with the introduction of burnable poisons or additional thorium rods. This problem had been addressed in previous work conducted in 1‐D geometry in detail and hence not be repeated here 46(chapter 3.3.2)…”

Section: Nuclear Safeguardingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MINATOM and General Atomics have signed in February 1995 to develop a gas turbine modular helium reactor (GT‐MHR) fueled with HG‐Pu . “An agreement has been signed on July 24, 1998 between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation on the Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Management of Plutonium That Has Been Withdrawn from Nuclear Military Programs.” In this frame, the design of a GT‐MHR of 600‐MW th power has been developed in a cooperative work between Kurchatov Institute, General Atomics, ORNL, LANL, and Framatome ANP . An IAEA project is conducted on the commercial utilization of HG‐Pu in thorium reactors .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large-scale energy production with thorium in a typical heavy-water reactor using high-grade plutonium as driver fuel

Şahi̇n

Şarer²

2018

Int J Energy Res

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Summary Thorium can be introduced into the energy vector in combination with high‐grade plutonium (HG‐Pu). Excellent neutron economy of heavy‐water moderator allows use of mixed ThO2/HG‐PuO2 fuel in heavy‐water reactors with high efficiency, leading to the exploitation of large world thorium reserves and extending the availability of the nuclear energy by two orders of magnitude. In the present work, the criticality calculations have been performed with the code MCNPX 3‐D geometrical modeling of a typical heavy‐water reactor, where the structure of all fuel rods and bundles is represented individually. In the course of time calculations, nuclear transformation and radioactive decay of all actinide elements as well as fission products are considered. Five different fuel compositions have been selected for investigations: (1) 97% thoria (ThO2) + 3% PuO2; (2) 96% ThO2 + 4% PuO2; (3) 95% ThO2 + 5% PuO2; (4) 94% ThO2 + 6% PuO2; and (5) 92% ThO2 + 8% PuO2. The behavior of the criticality k∞ and the burn‐up values of the reactor have been pursued by full power operation at 640 MWel (2180 MWth) for approximately 7 years. Time calculations have been conducted with MCNPX and CINDER codes under consideration of all nuclear transformation and radioactive decay processes on the actinide isotopes and fission fragments. As the reactor allows fuel recharging at on‐power operation mode, the reactor criticality has been followed down to keff,end = ~1.05. The corresponding burn‐up values and operation periods for the investigated modes are (1) 18 GWd/MT and 780 days; (2) 27 GWd/MT and 1200 days; (3) 35 GWd/MT and 1560 days; (4) 44 GWd/MT and 1940 days; and (5) 60 GWd/MT and 2640 days. Among the investigated four modes, 94% ThO2 + 6% PuO2 seems a reasonable choice under consideration of the high price of the HG‐Pu as driver fuel. The mixed fuel has the potential of an extensive exploitation of thorium resources. Reactor will run with the same fuel charge for approximately 5 years and allow a fuel burn‐up approximately 44 GWd/MT, comparable with conventional light‐water reactors (LWRs). Plutonium component of the mixed fuel will become nonprolific after few months of plant operation through the accumulation of even isotopes. Addition of few percent natural uranium to the initial mixed fuel charge will keep the 233U component below 22% and hence at nonprolific level over the entire plant operation period. Replacement of 4% ThO2 with 4% nat‐UO2 will practically not change main technical parameters of the reactor.

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Section: Nuclear Safeguardingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale energy production with thorium in a typical heavy-water reactor using high-grade plutonium as driver fuel

Şahi̇n

Şarer²

2018

Int J Energy Res

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“…Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) is one of these reactors, which was designed mainly to incinerate the materials acquired from the old dismantled nuclear warheads (Lee et al, 2008). In their study, a general description of this reactor has been made by Baldwin et al (2008) and also Kodochigov et al (2003) made neutronic studies on this reactor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weapons Grade Plutonium utilization with fertile materials in a Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor

Erol

Şahi̇n

2015

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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“…There are several proposals to burn surplus plutonium from both nuclear reactors and weapon very deeply in gas cooled reactors 1,2) and light water reactor with inert matrix fuel. Although its scope includes the entire fuel cycle, a key concern is the generation and the accumulation of weapon-usable material-especially plutonium-in power reactors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Denaturing of Plutonium by Transmutation of Minor-Actinides for Enhancement of Proliferation Resistance

Sagara

Saito

Peryoga

et al. 2005

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

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Feasibility study for the plutonium denaturing by utilizing minor-actinide transmutation in light water reactors has been performed. And the intrinsic feature of proliferation resistance of plutonium has been discussed based on IAEA's publication and Kessler's proposal. The analytical results show that not only 238 Pu but also other plutonium isotopes with even-mass-number have very important role for denaturing of plutonium due to their relatively large critical mass and noticeably high spontaneous fission neutron generation. With the changes of the minor-actinide doping ratio in U-Pu mix oxide fuel and moderator to fuel ratio, it is found that the reactor-grade plutonium from conventional light water reactors can be denatured to satisfy the proliferation resistance criterion based on the Kessler's proposal but not to be sufficient for the criterion based on IAEA's publication. It has been also confirmed that all the safety coefficients take negative value throughout the irradiation.

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Neutronic features of the GT-MHR reactor

Cited by 44 publications

References 1 publication

Large-scale energy production with thorium in a typical heavy-water reactor using high-grade plutonium as driver fuel

Large-scale energy production with thorium in a typical heavy-water reactor using high-grade plutonium as driver fuel

Weapons Grade Plutonium utilization with fertile materials in a Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor

Denaturing of Plutonium by Transmutation of Minor-Actinides for Enhancement of Proliferation Resistance

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