Reducing Irradiation Damage in a Long-Life Fast Reactor with Spectral Softening

Abstract

Long-life fast reactors receive considerable attention for their potential of using uranium efficiently, and because they can operate for extended periods without refueling. However, the main obstacle to achieving maximum operating times and fuel burnup is the neutron radiation damage that accumulates in the cladding and structural materials. Simulations of metal-fueled high-burnup fast reactors showed that the damage in these reactors' cladding material reached 200 displacements per atom (dpa) long before the maximum burnup was achieved. One possibility for overcoming this problem is spectral softening, which would reduce the kinetic energy imparted to reactor materials when neutrons collide with them. In this work, we compared the peak irradiation damage in metaland oxide-fueled fast reactors with that in equivalent reactors containing beryllium in the fuel and reflectors. We showed that the peak damage to the cladding in a metal-fueled reactor was reduced from 273 dpa to 230 dpa when beryllium was included in the core. In an oxide-fueled reactor, the peak damage to the cladding was reduced from 225 dpa to 203 dpa. All four reactors were operated with a core-average burnup of 112 MWd/kg of initial heavy metal (IHM), without reshuffling or refueling, and contained the same initial actinide mass profiles.

CADOR “Core with Adding DOppleR effect” concept application to sodium fast reactors

“…Merk [3] using different arrangements of a ZrH moderator material to enhance feedback coefficients and the global performance of the core. Other moderator materials have been proposed, such as beryllium, not only for improving feedback effects [4] but also for reducing clad irradiation damage caused by fast neutrons [5]. Figure 1, which has been derived from a parametric study, shows the variation of K Doppler as a function of moderator material type and content in an SFR core fuelled with PuO 2 -UO 2 .…”