Important processes during fuel burnup in fast reactors with low excess reactivity

It is proposed that a reactor with excess reactivity compensated by control rods and not exceeding the delayed-neutron fraction at all stages of its life cycle be developed to reduce the risk of reactivity accidents. Conventional light-water reactors require excess reactivity on burnup in order to o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atomic energy (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2012-10, Vol.112 (6), p.458-460
Main Authors: Davidenko, V. D., Ponomarev-Stepnoy, N. N., Rodionova, E. V., Tsibulskiy, V. F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boron
Hadrons
Heavy Ions
Hydrogen
Isotopes
Nuclear Chemistry
Nuclear Energy
Nuclear fuels
Nuclear Physics
Nuclear reactors
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Reactors
Risk reduction
Safety
Studies
Temperature effects
Xenon
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Summary:It is proposed that a reactor with excess reactivity compensated by control rods and not exceeding the delayed-neutron fraction at all stages of its life cycle be developed to reduce the risk of reactivity accidents. Conventional light-water reactors require excess reactivity on burnup in order to operate between refuelings. Consumable absorbers are used to decrease it. Nonetheless, several percents of reactivity must be reserved on control rods or reactivity must be compensated by a boron absorber mixed into the coolant. Taking account of these measures and uncertainty factors, the excess reactivity in light-water reactors is about 10%. A fast reactor requires much lower excess reactivity to compensate the temperature effect and xenon absorption. In this paper the authors examine one of the uncertainties inaccuracy of the description of the behavior of newly formed isotopes in the fuel.
ISSN:1063-4258
1573-8205
DOI:10.1007/s10512-012-9585-7