Neutronics Analysis of Core Configuration and Dimension Variation for Modular Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) with Monte Carlo Method
Helen Raflis (a*), Zaki Su’ud (a), Abdul Waris (a), and Dwi Irwanto (a)
(a) Nuclear Physics and Biophysics Research Division, Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Bandung Institute of Technology Indonesia, Jalan Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132, INDONESIA
*helenraflis[at]students.itb.ac.id
Abstract
The neutronics analysis of core configuration and dimension variation for modular Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) that selected by the generation IV international forum as one of six advanced reactor concepts has been done to understand of GFR performance. The main advantages of modular GFR compare another advanced reactor concept is using helium gas as main coolant due to figure out of feasibility of GFR core design need the simulation and modeling. In this paper, the variation of core configuration and dimension for core design have applied in radial, axial and radial-axial direction. The Monte Carlo method code named MCNP6 and OpenMC have been used for the criticality and isotope evaluation of design core GFR. The Monte Carlo method code provides the exact solution to solve the neutron transport equation in full-scale and heterogeneous three-dimensional (3D) geometry modeling using Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF/B-VII.b5) nuclear data and continuous energy. The neutronics parameters characterized are the value of keff, power and neutron flux distribution, and burn-up level to know of the performance of GFR core design. The result of analysis showed that the core configuration in radial direction and dimension variation give the good understanding about the feasibility of GFR core design. In summary, by varied the core configuration in radial direction is prospective design for the next research.
Keywords: Neutronic Analysis, Modular GFR, Monte Carlo Method, Core Configuration, Core Dimension
Topic: Nuclear and Radiation Computation