Nuclear design

Fujimoto, Nozomu; Nojiri, Naoki ; Ando, Hiroei*; Yamashita, Kiyonobu*

In the nuclear design of the HTTR, the reactivity balance is planned so that the design requirements are fully satisfied. Moreover, the reactivity coefficients are evaluated to confirm the safety characteristics of the reactor. The power distribution in the core was optimized by changing the uranium enrichment to maintain the fuel temperature at less than the limit (1600C). Deviation from the optimized distribution due to the burnup of fissile materials was avoided by flattening time-dependent changes in local reactivities. Flattening was achieved by optimizing the specifications of the burnable poisons. The original nuclear design model had to be modified based on the first critical experiments. The Monte Carlo code MVP was also used to predict criticality of the initial core. The predicted excess reactivities are now in good agreement with the experimental results.