Correlations among FBR core characteristics for various fuel compositions

Maruyama, Shuhei   ; Oki, Shigeo ; Okubo, Tsutomu; Kawashima, Katsuyuki; Mizuno, Tomoyasu

This study shows the good correlations in FBR core characteristics, and find out the mechanism of their correlations with the aid of sensitivity analyses. It has been clarified that Doppler coefficient turns to have the correlations with the other core characteristics by considering the constraint of the criticality requirement for fuel composition variations. The finding of the correlations makes easy to specify the ranges of core reactivity control and core safety properties which are important for core design in determining core specification and performance. It gives significant information for FBR core design in the transition stage. Moreover, as an application of the above-mentioned correlations, a simplified burnup reactivity index is developed for rapid and rational estimation of the core characteristic variations. By using this index and the correlations, the core characteristic variations can be estimated for various fuel compositions without repeating core calculations.