Development of a multi-zone irradiation model for scenario studies involving ASTRID-like SFRs
Résumé
The French 600 MWe Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors with "low void effect" (SFR-CFV) ASTRID is a highly heterogeneous reactor design composed of several fissile and fertile fuel zones. It can be operated as plutonium break-even or burner. This paper presents an exploration of both behaviors for many different fresh fuel compositions built from UOX and MOX spent fuels. It will show that the plutonium content as well as the fresh fissile fuel isotopic vector are the two parameters strongly affecting the fuel composition evolution during irradiation. Consequently, for fuel cycle prospective studies involving such SFR integrated into a Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) fleet, it is required to use simulation codes with an ad hoc fuel irradiation model able to maintain the core heterogeneity during the depletion calculation while keeping the interactions between the different fuel zones. This new model was implemented in the dynamic fuel cycle simulation tool CLASS and is based on two predictors used to estimate, per zone, mean cross-sections and flux values. The good accuracy of this new model on plutonium and minor actinides inventories may also allow physical data important for safety assessment of fuel cycle to be estimated and transmutation scenario studies integrating potential fissile and fertile separation.
Domaines
Physique [physics]
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)