Simulating a Lead&Cooled Reactor Campaign Using the EUCLID/V1 Code

6/20/2022 2022 - #02 Modelling processes at nuclear facilities

Belov A.A. Bereznev V.P. Blokhina G.S. Veprev D.P. Koltashev D.A. Potapov V.S. Chertovskikh O.I. Shershov A.V.

https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2022.2.13

The paper presents the results of the development of the EUCLID/V1 dynamicтintegrated calculation code designed to analyze and justify the safety of fast neutron reactor facilities with a liquid-metal coolant, in terms of simulating the reactor campaign. The relevance of this study lies in the need to simulate the behavior of the core at any time during the campaign. This will make it possible to obtain a full dataset for subsequent simulations of the reactor dynamic conditions (including transient states or accidents). The authors have developed a fuel archive to store calculated data in the HDF5 format, created a calculation model editor to generate input data in the fuel archive format, and also provided an example of calculating the campaign of a lead-cooled fast reactor for three core design models shown in this paper. The main array of fuel assemblies was simulated as a single unit in the first model and as three units in the second model, whereas in the third one all the assemblies were unique. In addition, the authors have shown changes in the total masses of actinides in the core, revealed that the different core models have an insignificant effect on the evolution of the total masses of actinides, and given the fuel assembly burnup values for the three core models. For the third model, the largest difference between the minimum and maximum burnup values was obtained with an almost identical average over the fuel assemblies. The reactivity margin over time for the three core models was presented. It was shown that the values and behavior of the reactivity margin during the three microcampaigns practically coincided. From the fourth to the sixth cycle, the reactivity margin value for the third core model was lower than for the first and the second ones. Finally, the authors conclude that it is desirable to evaluate the behavior of the reactivity margin for lead-cooled fast reactor campaigns based on a detailed model of the core.

References

1. Mosunova N.A. The EUCLID/V1 Integrated Code for Safety Assessment of Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors. Part 1: Basic Models. Teploenergetika. 2018, v. 65, no. 5, pp. 304-316; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040363618050065 (in Russian).
2. Alipchenkov V.M., Boldyrev A.V., Veprev D.P., Zeygarnik Yu.A., Kolobaeva P.V., Moiseenko E.V., Mosunova N.A., Seleznyov E.F., Strizhov V.F., Usov E.V., Osipov S.L., Gorbunov V.S., Afremov D.A., Semchenkov A.A. The EUCLID/V1 Integrated Code for Safety Assessment of Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors. Part 2: Validation and Verification. Teploenergetika. 2018, v. 65, no. 9. pp. 627-640; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040363618090011 (in Russian).
3. Attestation Certificate of the Computer Program «EUCLID/V1.2», No. 462 from 30.05.2019 (in Russian).
4. Seleznyov E.F., Belov A.A., Belousov V.I., Chernova I.S., Drobyshev Yu.Yu. DOLCE VITA. VANT. Ser. Yadernye i Reaktornye Konstanty. 2018, no. 1, pp. 157-168 (in Russian).
5. Bereznev V.P., Seleznyov E.F., Asatryan D.S. The «CORNER» Neutronics Calculation Code. Izvestia Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zawedeniy. Yadernaya Energetika. 2015, no. 1, pp. 136-143; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2015.1.15 (in Russian).
6. Seleznyov E.F., Belov A.A., Belousov V.I., Chernova I.S. BPSD Code Upgrade for Solving the Nuclear Kinetics Problem. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2018, no. 4, pp. 115-127; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2018.4.10 (in Russian).
7. Attestation Certificate of the Computer Program BPSD/V2.1, No. 516 from 30.01.2021 (in Russian).
8. Available at: https://www.hdfgroup.org/solutions/hdf5/ (accessed 11.05.2021).
9. Manturov G.N., Nikolaev M.N., Tsibulya A.M. CONSYST Code for Neutron Constants Preparation. Scope Statement: IPPE Preprint-2828. Obninsk, FEI Publ., 2000, 72 p. (in Russian).
10. Balovnev A.V., Borovskaya G.V., Davydov V.K., Zhirnov A.P., Kalugina K.M., Krivoshein I.N., Moiseev A.V. Pre-Test Modeling of Experiments on the BFS-2 Stand to Evidence Characteristics of Core Reactor BREST-OD-300. Proc. of the VIth All Russian Sci. and Techn. Conf. of Young Spec. «Innovations in Nuclear Power – 2019», pp. 915-922 (in Russian).

fast-neutron reactor reactor campaign EUCLID/V1 fuel assembly burnup BPSD neutron-physical parameters

Link for citing the article: Belov A.A., Bereznev V.P., Blokhina G.S., Veprev D.P., Koltashev D.A., Potapov V.S., Chertovskikh O.I., Shershov A.V. Simulating a Lead&Cooled Reactor Campaign Using the EUCLID/V1 Code. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2022, no. 2, pp. 138-147; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2022.2.13 (in Russian).