Heterogeneous (Th, U-233)O2 Fuel Utilization on HTTR
Andrey (a), Abdul Waris (b*)
(a) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
(b) Nuclear Physics & Biophysics Research Division, Department of Physics, Faculty of
Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
*awaris[at]fi.itb.ac.id
Abstract
The high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR) is a block-type high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) developed by Japan. This reactor can operate with outlet temperature of 950°C and the heat can be used for the cogeneration of electricity and hydrogen production. In this study, the neutronic analysis is carried out for the helium cooled HTTR reactor with (Th, U-233)O2 fuel. The fuel blocks used in the core vary from 3,3% to 7,5% of U-233 content. The calculations are performed by PIJ and CITATION modules on SRAC2006 code system with JENDL-4.0 as the nuclear data library. The cell-burnup calculations are conducted with two models, with and without microscopic cell definition in the fuel compact. The core calculations are conducted with triangular-z and hexagonal-z core geometry. Several neutronic parameters are analyzed, such as effective multiplication factor (k-eff), conversion ratio, changes in atomic density for fissile and fertile materials, neutron spectrum, power density distribution, and power peaking factor. The results show similar neutronic parameters with model 1 and 2. The k-eff is greater in model 1. The neutron spectrum is dominant in the thermal energy. Both core geometries show similar results with greater k-eff in the triangular-z geometry. The maximum power density is located at the fuel block with 5,5% of U-233 content.
Keywords: HTTR, JENDL-4.0, k-eff, neutronic, SRAC2006
Topic: Nuclear Science and Engineering