Conceptual Analysis of (Th,U-233)O2 Fueled Small Long-Life PWR with Np-237 and Pa-231 as Burnable Poison

Abstract

Abstract Conceptual analysis of (Th,U-233)O2 fueled small long-life PWR with Np-237 and Pa-231 as burnable poison has been performed. The fuel used is (Th,U-233)O2 with Th-232 and U-233 as fertile-fissile nuclides pair with 8% U-233 and addition of Pa-231 and Np-237 as burnable poison (BP). This study aims to investigate optimum design of fuel and core configuration and the performance of reactor. The calculation is done by SRAC2006 code developed by JAEA and is based on JENDL-4.0 library. Cell calculation conducted by PIJ module shows that optimum design is reached at 60% of fuel volume fraction and 6% of burnable poison. Core optimization calculation by CITATION module for two dimensional (R – Z) core geometry shows that reactor could reach 60 years of lifetime at 150 MWt power level which correspond to 25.36 power density. Calculation for heterogen reactor shows that reactor with BP combination of 8% of Pa-231 at center zone and 6% of Pa-231 at outer zone has better performance with 60 years of operation period than reactor with combination of 8% of Np-237 at center zone and 6% of Pa-231 at outer zone that reaches 46 years lifetime.