A novel research reactor concept based on coated particle fuel

Abstract

This paper presents a novel fuel concept based on a coated-particle-fuel (CPF) for a high-performance and ultra-safe research reactor design. Unlike the conventional U3Si2-dispersed fuel plate, small CPFs are randomly embedded in the Al matrix. A CPF is composed of two components: a central fuel kernel and a thin buffer layer. To optimize the U loading, several types of fuel such as UO2 and UC are studied to achieve U densities comparable to U3Si2-based fuel. A 20 MWth pool type research reactor is considered to investigate the potential and characteristics of the new fuel concept. The thermal analysis was performed by using MATRA-P codes to obtain the temperature distribution in average and hottest channel condition, while neutronic analysis was performed by using the continuous energy Monte Carlo code Serpent. The neutronic analysis was performed in the equilibrium core condition resulting from a multi-batch fuel management. In this preliminary study, it is found that by using CPF, the fuel Doppler effect can be considerably enhanced, thus increasing the inherent safety of research reactors. A very high thermal neutron flux can also be achieved with the newly-proposed CPF-based fuel concept. It can be safely concluded that the CPF-based plate fuel concept will provide a new way to design an ultra-safe and high-performance research reactor.