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Using Thorium Based Fuel in AP1000: Steady State Analysis

Article

Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

The feasibility of utilizing Thorium-Plutonium Mixed Oxide in the Westinghouse AP1000 Advanced Passive pressurized water reactor is examined under steady-state, beginning of life conditions. Initial core loading of the reactor has three types of UO2 fuel assemblies with the U235 enrichments as: 2.35w/o, 3.40w/o and 4.45w/o. In this paper, one-third of the assemblies are replaced by (Th-Pu)O2 fuel in two arrangements; the first with a blanket of (Th-Pu)O2 fuel replacing the 4.45% enriched UO2 assemblies surrounding the low enriched UO2, and in the second some of the UO2 assemblies are replaced in a way creating a ring of (Th-Pu)O2 fuel in the core. The reactor is modeled using QUARK code. The required cross-section data for QUARK have been generated using WIMSD5. The results of the steady state analysis show that introducing (Th-Pu)O2 fuel into AP1000 would not negatively impact the reactor's safety as the criteria mentioned in design control document are met. For (Th-Pu)O2 blanket and ring loading arrangements, the power peaking factor is less or equal the design limit. Over the length of the hot channel, the MDNBR varies with a minimum above the design limit for blanket and ring loading arrangements. This work provides the basis of the study on fuel behavior and thermal hydraulic analysis of AP1000 to evaluate the safety aspect of various core loading patterns under anticipated and accidental conditions.

DOI

10.21608/ajnsa.2018.1892.1004

Keywords

AP1000, Reactor safety, Steady-State Analysis, (Th-Pu)O2 Fuel, Neutronic/Thermal-Hydraulic Coupling, QUARK, WIMSD5

Authors

First Name

hala

Last Name

selim

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Nuclear Safety Engineering, Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority, Cairo, Egypt

Email

halakselim@yahoo.com

City

cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

esmat

Last Name

amin

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Nuclear Safety Engineering, Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority, Cairo, Egypt

Email

esmatamin1@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

hassan

Last Name

roushdy

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Engineering Physics Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

Email

hsroushdy@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

51

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

874

Issue Date

2018-07-01

Receive Date

2017-10-23

Publish Date

2018-07-01

Page Start

9

Page End

21

Print ISSN

1110-0451

Online ISSN

2090-4258

Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/article_8481.html

Detail API

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=8481

Order

2

Type

Original Article

Type Code

455

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

Publication Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Using Thorium Based Fuel in AP1000: Steady State Analysis

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023