Study on kinetic parameters of pebble bed reactor with TRISO duplex fuel

Abstract

Thorium, in this case, 232Th has a higher thermal neutron capture cross-section than 238U, which means that more fertile isotopes can be transmuted and could lead to higher fissile isotope 233U. In addition, 233U has a good performance in the thermal spectrum. Theoretically, a nuclear reactor using thorium fuel can also last longer than one using uranium fuel. The use of TRISO duplex fuel is predicted to produce better neutronic behavior in a pebble bed reactor. This work aims to study the kinetic parameters of a pebble bed reactor with TRISO duplex fuel. The configuration of the TRISO duplex fuel pebble consists of an inner region filled with UO2 TRISO particles and an outer region filled with ThO2 TRISO particles surrounded by a graphite matrix of fuel pebble. Three configurations with volume fraction of UO2-ThO2 were considered in this study: 80-20 %, 75-25 %, and 70-30 %. The HTR-10 reactor was chosen as a reactor model because its geometry and material specifications are known. A series of calculations were conducted using the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP6 and ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data library. The calculation results were then analyzed to investigate the effect of UO2 and ThO2 compositions in TRISO duplex fuel on the kinetic parameters of the pebble bed reactor with various TRISO packing fractions of 1-50 %. It can be concluded that the utilization of TRISO duplex fuel in a pebble bed reactor could significantly affect the core multiplication factor and kinetic parameters caused by an increase in Th content. On the other hand, the TRISO packing fraction is taking part in neutron moderation since a lower packing fraction means higher moderation for fueled pebble.