Comparison of thorium nitride and uranium nitride fuel on small modular pressurized water reactor in neutronic analysis using SRAC code

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2022.255849

Keywords:

PWR, SRAC, thorium nitride, uranium nitride, modular reactor, excess reactivity

Abstract

Comparison of thorium nitride (ThN) and uranium nitride (UN) fuel on small modular PWR in neutronic analysis has been carried out. PWR in module is one type of reactor that can be utilized because of its small size so that it can be placed on demand. Neutronic calculations were performed using SRAC version 2006, the data library using JENDL 4.0. The first calculation was fuel pin (PIJ) calculation with hexagonal fuel pin cell type. And the second calculation was reactor core (CITATION) calculation using homogeneous and heterogeneous core configurations. ThN and UN fuels use heterogeneous configurations with 3 fuel variations. The reactor geometry was used in two fuels are the same, with diameter and height active core was 300 cm and 100 cm. In this research, Np-237 was added as a minor actinide in the UN fuel to reduce the amount of Np-237 in the world and also reduce the k-eff value. For ThN fuel, Pa-231 also added in the fuel to reduce the k-eff value. The optimum configuration of UN fuel reached when used heterogeneous core configuration case four with percentage of U-235 in F1=5.5 %, F2=7 % and F3=8.5 % also with the addition of Np-237 0.2 % and fuel fraction 56 %. It has a maximum excess reactivity value 12.56 % %∆k/k. And then, the optimum configuration of ThN fuel reached when used heterogeneous core configuration case three with percentage of U-233 in F1=2 %, F2=4 % and F3=6 % with the addition of Pa-231 0.5 % and fuel fraction 53 %. It has a maximum excess reactivity value 7.67 % %∆k/k. The comparison of optimum design of UN and ThN fuel shows that the ThN fuel has the k-eff value closer to critical than UN fuel. Therefore, in this study, ThN fuel is more suitable for use in PWR reactors because it has a small excess value and can operate for 10 years without refueling

Supporting Agency

  • This research was funded by Universitas Jember, Indonesia, for research activities and publication supports. The authors were thanks to LP2M Universitas Jember for funding the research by Hibah Reworking Skripsi 2021.

Author Biographies

Ratna Dewi Syarifah, Universitas Jember

Doctor of Physics, Principal Investigator

Department of Physics

Mila Hidayatul Aula, Universitas Jember

Undergraduate Student, Research Assistant

Department of Physics

Andini Ardianingrum, Universitas Jember

Undergraduate Student, Research Assistant

Department of Physics

Laela Nur Janah, Universitas Jember

Undergraduate Student, Research Assistant

Department of Physics

Wenny Maulina, Universitas Jember

Master of Science

Department of Physics

References

  1. Global electricity demand is growing faster than renewables, driving a strong increase in generation from fossil fuels (2021). IEA. Available at: https://www.iea.org/news/global-electricity-demand-is-growing-faster-than-renewables-driving-strong-increase-in-generation-from-fossil-fuels
  2. IAEA Increases Projections for Nuclear Power Use in 2050 (2021). IAEA. Available at: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/iaea-increases-projections-for-nuclear-power-use-in-2050
  3. World Energy Outlook 2021. IEA. Available at: https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2021
  4. Outline History of Nuclear Energy (2020). World Nuclear Association. Available at: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/outline-history-of-nuclear-energy.aspx
  5. Reactor Status Reports (2022). PRIS. Available at: https://pris.iaea.org/PRIS/WorldStatistics/OperationalReactorsByType.aspx
  6. Pressurized Water Reactor Simulator. Workshop Material (2005). Vienna, 91. Available at: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/TCS-22_2nd_web.pdf
  7. Dewita, E. (2012). Analisis Potensi Thorium Sebagai Bahan Bakar Nuklir Alternatif Pltn. Jurnal Pengembangan Energi Nuklir, 14 (1), 45–56. Available at: https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/124548-none-823ea08b.pdf
  8. Syarifah, R. D., Suud, Z. (2015). The prospect of uranium nitride (UN) and mixed nitride fuel (UN-PuN) for pressurized water reactor. AIP Conference Proceedings. doi: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4930788
  9. Subki, I., Pramutadi, A., Rida, S. N. M., Su’ud, Z., Eka Sapta, R., Muh. Nurul, S. et. al. (2008). The utilization of thorium for long-life small thermal reactors without on-site refueling. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 50 (2-6), 152–156. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2007.10.029
  10. Subkhi, M. N., Su’ud, Z., Waris, A. (2012). Design study of long-life PWR using thorium cycle. AIP Conference Proceedings. doi: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4725443
  11. Subkhi, M. N., Su’ud, Z., Waris, A. (2013). Netronic Design of Small Long-Life PWR Using Thorium Cycle. Advanced Materials Research, 772, 524–529. doi: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.772.524
  12. Subkhi, M. N., Suud, Z., Waris, A., Permana, S. (2015). Studi Desain Reaktor Air Bertekanan (PWR) Berukuran Kecil Berumur Panjang Berbahan Bakar Thorium. Jurnal ISTEK, 9 (1), 32–49. Available at: https://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/istek/article/view/169/185
  13. Setiadipura, T., Astuti, Y., Su’ud, Z. (2005). Neutronic Design Study of Small Long-live PWR with(Th,U)O2 Fuel. Proceedings of GLOBAL, 510, 155–160.
  14. Ardiansyah, H. (2018). Studi Parameter Desain Teras Integral Pressurized Water Reactor Dengan Bahan Bakar Mixed Oxide Fuel Menggunakan Program SRAC. Jurnal Forum Nuklir, 12 (2), 61. doi: https://doi.org/10.17146/jfn.2018.12.2.5035
  15. Luthfi, W., Pinem, S. (2020). Calculation of 2-Dimensional PWR MOX/UO2 Core Benchmark OECD NEA 6048 with SRAC Code. Jurnal Teknologi Reaktor Nuklir Tri Dasa Mega, 22 (3), 89–96. doi: https://doi.org/10.17146/tdm.2020.22.3.5955
  16. Syarifah, R. D., Yulianto, Y., Su’ud, Z., Basar, K., Irwanto, D. (2017). Neutronic Analysis of Thorium Nitride (Th, U233)N Fuel for 500MWth Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) Long Life without Refueling. Key Engineering Materials, 733, 47–50. doi: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.733.47
  17. Syarifah, R. D., Su’ud, Z., Basar, K., Irwanto, D., Pattipawaej, S. C., Ilham, M. (2017). Comparison of uranium plutonium nitride (U-Pu-N) and thorium nitride (Th-N) fuel for 500 MWth gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) long life without refueling. International Journal of Energy Research, 42 (1), 214–220. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/er.3923
  18. Syarifah, R. D., Arkundato, A., Irwanto, D., Su’ud, Z. (2020). Neutronic analysis of comparation UN-PuN fuel and ThN fuel for 300MWth Gas Cooled Fast Reactor long life without refueling. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1436 (1), 012132. doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1436/1/012132
  19. Okumura, K., Kugo, T., Kaneko, K., Tsuchihashi, K. (2002). SRAC (Ver. 2002); The compreshensive neutronics calculation code system. Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI).
  20. Ardisasmita, M. S., Bunjamin, M. (2010). Komputasi dalam Ilmu Pengetahuan dan Teknologi Nuklir: Konsep Dasar & Model Matematik. Yogyakarta: BATAN, 161.

Downloads

Published

2022-04-30

How to Cite

Syarifah, R. D., Aula, M. H., Ardianingrum, A., Janah, L. N., & Maulina, W. (2022). Comparison of thorium nitride and uranium nitride fuel on small modular pressurized water reactor in neutronic analysis using SRAC code . Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, 2(8 (116), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.15587/1729-4061.2022.255849

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 8 (116) (2022): Energy-saving technologies and equipment

Section

Energy-saving technologies and equipment

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Ratna Dewi Syarifah, Mila Hidayatul Aula, Andini Ardianingrum, Laela Nur Janah, Wenny Maulina

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The consolidation and conditions for the transfer of copyright (identification of authorship) is carried out in the License Agreement. In particular, the authors reserve the right to the authorship of their manuscript and transfer the first publication of this work to the journal under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license. At the same time, they have the right to conclude on their own additional agreements concerning the non-exclusive distribution of the work in the form in which it was published by this journal, but provided that the link to the first publication of the article in this journal is preserved.

A license agreement is a document in which the author warrants that he/she owns all copyright for the work (manuscript, article, etc.).
The authors, signing the License Agreement with TECHNOLOGY CENTER PC, have all rights to the further use of their work, provided that they link to our edition in which the work was published.
According to the terms of the License Agreement, the Publisher TECHNOLOGY CENTER PC does not take away your copyrights and receives permission from the authors to use and dissemination of the publication through the world's scientific resources (own electronic resources, scientometric databases, repositories, libraries, etc.).
In the absence of a signed License Agreement or in the absence of this agreement of identifiers allowing to identify the identity of the author, the editors have no right to work with the manuscript.
It is important to remember that there is another type of agreement between authors and publishers – when copyright is transferred from the authors to the publisher. In this case, the authors lose ownership of their work and may not use it in any way.