Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy

A prototype sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling, consist of an ignition and breeding region, was designed in this paper. Neutronic and depletion calculation was performed by MCORE with data library of ENDF/B-VII. A self-developed code SAST was used to perform steady s...

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Main Authors: Meiyin Zheng, Ping Chen, Dalin Zhang, Wenxi Tian, Guanghui Su
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2025-06-01
Series:International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468605025000602
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author Meiyin Zheng
Ping Chen
Dalin Zhang
Wenxi Tian
Guanghui Su
author_facet Meiyin Zheng
Ping Chen
Dalin Zhang
Wenxi Tian
Guanghui Su
author_sort Meiyin Zheng
collection DOAJ
description A prototype sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling, consist of an ignition and breeding region, was designed in this paper. Neutronic and depletion calculation was performed by MCORE with data library of ENDF/B-VII. A self-developed code SAST was used to perform steady state thermal-hydraulic behavior analysis. The results show that the fluctuation of the reactivity and power peak factor is too big, thus the ignition process should be optimized. The initial nuclide density distribution was adjusted and the axial fuel shuffling option was used to optimize the core ignition process. Results show that the maximum reactivity and radial power peak factor fluctuation are reduced to 1.04 % and 11.76 %; the power density distribution and neutron flux distribution move in the opposite direction of the fuel shuffling; power density, neutron flux and nuclide density are shaped like crescents in the core radial direction during equilibrium cycle; the discharged burn-up of the core is non-uniform, the maximum and minimum discharged burn-up of the outer and inner core are 17.7 % and 70.3 %, respectively. The core flow distribution analysis was based on the end of equilibrium cycle (EOEC) power distribution. Results show that maximum and minimum relative power flow ratio during the whole core life are 1.11 and 0.88; maximum fuel and cladding temperature are 676.9 °Cand 560.0 °C during the whole core life, which have a large safety margin to the design values.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2468-6050
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
record_format Article
series International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology
spelling doaj-art-b7021cfaf67b4805b09c3aba2938d0592025-08-20T03:30:23ZengKeAi Communications Co., Ltd.International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology2468-60502025-06-017217718610.1016/j.jandt.2025.05.007Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategyMeiyin Zheng0Ping Chen1Dalin Zhang2Wenxi Tian3Guanghui Su4State Key Laboratory of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610213, China; Corresponding author.State Key Laboratory of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610213, ChinaSchool of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, ChinaSchool of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, ChinaSchool of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, ChinaA prototype sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling, consist of an ignition and breeding region, was designed in this paper. Neutronic and depletion calculation was performed by MCORE with data library of ENDF/B-VII. A self-developed code SAST was used to perform steady state thermal-hydraulic behavior analysis. The results show that the fluctuation of the reactivity and power peak factor is too big, thus the ignition process should be optimized. The initial nuclide density distribution was adjusted and the axial fuel shuffling option was used to optimize the core ignition process. Results show that the maximum reactivity and radial power peak factor fluctuation are reduced to 1.04 % and 11.76 %; the power density distribution and neutron flux distribution move in the opposite direction of the fuel shuffling; power density, neutron flux and nuclide density are shaped like crescents in the core radial direction during equilibrium cycle; the discharged burn-up of the core is non-uniform, the maximum and minimum discharged burn-up of the outer and inner core are 17.7 % and 70.3 %, respectively. The core flow distribution analysis was based on the end of equilibrium cycle (EOEC) power distribution. Results show that maximum and minimum relative power flow ratio during the whole core life are 1.11 and 0.88; maximum fuel and cladding temperature are 676.9 °Cand 560.0 °C during the whole core life, which have a large safety margin to the design values.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468605025000602Traveling wave reactorNeutronic analysisThermal-hydraulic analysis
spellingShingle Meiyin Zheng
Ping Chen
Dalin Zhang
Wenxi Tian
Guanghui Su
Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology
Traveling wave reactor
Neutronic analysis
Thermal-hydraulic analysis
title Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
title_full Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
title_fullStr Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
title_full_unstemmed Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
title_short Performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
title_sort performance of sodium cooled traveling wave reactor core with axial fuel shuffling strategy
topic Traveling wave reactor
Neutronic analysis
Thermal-hydraulic analysis
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468605025000602
work_keys_str_mv AT meiyinzheng performanceofsodiumcooledtravelingwavereactorcorewithaxialfuelshufflingstrategy
AT pingchen performanceofsodiumcooledtravelingwavereactorcorewithaxialfuelshufflingstrategy
AT dalinzhang performanceofsodiumcooledtravelingwavereactorcorewithaxialfuelshufflingstrategy
AT wenxitian performanceofsodiumcooledtravelingwavereactorcorewithaxialfuelshufflingstrategy
AT guanghuisu performanceofsodiumcooledtravelingwavereactorcorewithaxialfuelshufflingstrategy