Research on improvement of HTGR core power-density, 4; Feasibility study for a reactor core

Okita, Shoichiro; Mizuta, Naoki; Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Goto, Minoru; Yoshida, Katsumi*; Nishimura, Yosuke*; Okamoto, Koji*

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/05

Concepts and basic designs of various nuclear fuels, 5; Fuels for high temperature gas-cooled reactor and molten salt reactor

Ueta, Shohei; Sasaki, Koei; Arita, Yuji*

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi ATOMO, 63(8), p.615 - 620, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesjb.63.8_615

no abstracts in English

Proliferation resistance evaluation of an HTGR transuranic fuel cycle using PRAETOR code

Aoki, Takeshi; Chirayath, S. S.*; Sagara, Hiroshi*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 141, p.107325_1 - 107325_7, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2020.107325

The proliferation resistance (PR) of an inert matrix fuel (IMF) in the transuranic nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) of a high temperature gas cooled reactor is evaluated relative to the uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) NFC of a light water reactor using PRAETOR code and sixty-eight input attributes. The objective is to determine the impacts of chemical stability of IMF and fuel irradiation on the PR. Specific material properties of the IMF, such as lower plutonium content, carbide ceramics coating, and absence of U, contribute to enhance its relative PR compared to MOX fuel. The overall PR value of the fresh IMF (an unirradiated direct use material with a one-month diversion detection timeliness goal) is nearly equal to that of the spent MOX fuel (an irradiated direct use nuclear material with a three-month diversion detection timeliness goal). Final results suggest a reduced safeguards inspection frequency to manage the IMF.

Study on plutonium burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor in Japan; Introduction scenario, reactor safety and fabrication tests of the 3S-TRISO fuel

Ueta, Shohei; Mizuta, Naoki; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Tachibana, Yukio; Honda, Masaki*; Saiki, Yohei*; Takahashi, Masashi*; Ohira, Koichi*; Nakano, Masaaki*; et al.

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 357, p.110419_1 - 110419_10, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110419

The concept of a plutonium (Pu) burner HTGR is proposed to incarnate highly-effective Pu utilization by its inherent safety features. The security and safety fuel (3S-TRISO fuel) employs the coated fuel particle with a fuel kernel made of plutonium dioxide (PuO) and yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as an inert matrix. This paper presents feasibility study of Pu burner HTGR and R&D on the 3S-TRISO fuel.

Study of SiC-matrix fuel element for HTGR

Mizuta, Naoki; Aoki, Takeshi; Ueta, Shohei; Ohashi, Hirofumi; Yan, X.

Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2019/05

Enhancement of safety and cooling performance of fuel elements are desired for a commercial High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). Applying sleeveless fuel elements and dual side directly cooling structures with oxidation resistant SiC-matrix fuel compact has a possibility of improving safety and cooling performance at the pin-in-block type HTGR. The irradiated effective thermal conductivity of a fuel compact is an important physical property for core thermal design of the pin-in-block type HTGR. In order to discuss the irradiated effective thermal conductivity of the SiC-matrix fuel compact which could improve the cooling performance of the reactor, the maximum fuel temperature during normal operation of the pin-in-block type HTGR with dual side directly cooling structures are analytically evaluated. From these results, the desired irradiated thermal conductivity of SiC matrix are discussed. In addition, the suitable fabrication method of SiC-matrix fuel compact is examined from viewpoints of the sintering temperature, the purity and the mass productivity.

Study on Pu-burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor in Japan; Design study of fuel and reactor core

Goto, Minoru; Aihara, Jun; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Ueta, Shohei; Fukaya, Yuji; Okamoto, Koji*

Proceedings of 9th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2018/10

JAEA has conducted design studies of a Pu-burner HTGR. The Pu-burner HTGR incinerates Pu by fission, and hence a high burn-up is required for the efficient incineration. In the fuel design, a thin ZrC layer, which acts as an oxygen getter and suppresses the internal pressure, was coated on the fuel kernel to prevent the CFP failure at the high burn-up. A stress analysis of the SiC layer, which acts as a pressure vessel for the CFP, was performed for with consideration of the depression effect due to the ZrC layer. As a result, the CFP failure fraction at high burn-up of 500 GWd/t satisfied the target value. In the reactor core design, an axial fuel shuffling was employed to attain the high burn-up, and the nuclear burn-up calculations with the whole core model and the fuel temperature calculations were performed. As a result, the nuclear characteristics, which are the shutdown margin and the temperature coefficient of reactivity, and the fuel temperature satisfied their target values.

Development of security and safety fuel for Pu-burner HTGR, 2; Design study of fuel and reactor core

Goto, Minoru; Ueta, Shohei; Aihara, Jun; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Fukaya, Yuji; Tachibana, Yukio; Okamoto, Koji*

Proceedings of 25th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-25) (CD-ROM), 6 Pages, 2017/07

A PuO-YSZ fuel kernel with a ZrC coating, which enhances safety, security and safeguard, namely: 3S-TRISO fuel, was proposed to introduce to the plutonium-burner HTGR. In this study, the efficiency of the ZrC coating as the free-oxygen getter was examined based on a thermochemical calculation. A preliminary study on the feasibility of the 3S-TRISO fuel was conducted focusing on the internal pressure. Additionally, a nuclear feasibility of the reactor core was studied. As a result, all the amount of the free-oxygen is captured by a thin ZrC coating under 1600C and coating ZrC on the fuel kernel should be very effective method to suppress the internal pressure. The internal pressure of the 3S-TRISO fuel at 500 GWd/t is lower than that of UO kernel TRISO fuel whose feasibility had been already confirmed and the 3S-TRISO fuel should be feasible. The fuel shuffling allows to achieve 500 GWd/t. The temperature coefficient of reactivity is negative during the operation period and thus the nuclear feasibility of the reactor core should be achievable.

Development of fuel temperature calculation code "FTCC" for high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Inaba, Yoshitomo; Isaka, Kazuyoshi; Shibata, Taiju

JAEA-Data/Code 2017-002, 74 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Data-Code-2017-002.pdf:2.36MB

In order to ensure the thermal integrity of fuel in High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs), it is necessary that the maximum fuel temperature in normal operation is to be lower than a thermal design target. In the core thermal-hydraulic design of block-type HTGRs, the maximum fuel temperature should be evaluated considering data such as core geometry and specifications, power density and neutron fluence distributions, and core coolant flow distribution. The fuel temperature calculation code used in the design stage of the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) presupposes to run on UNIX systems, and its operation and execution procedure are complicated and are not user-friendly. Therefore, a new fuel temperature calculation code, named FTCC, which has a user-friendly system such as a simple and easy operation and execution procedure, was developed. This report describes the calculation objects and models, the basic equations, the strong points (improvement points from the HTTR design code), the code structure, the using method of FTCC, and the result of a validation calculation with FTCC. The calculation result obtained by FTCC provides good agreement with that of the HTTR design code, and then FTCC will be used as one of the design codes for high temperature gas-cooled reactors. In addition, the effect of hot spot factors and fuel cooling forms on reducing the maximum fuel temperature is investigated with FTCC. As a result, it was found that the effect of center hole cooling for hollow fuel compacts and gapless cooling with monolithic type fuel rods on reducing the temperature is very high.

Irradiation test and post irradiation examination of the high burnup HTGR fuel

Ueta, Shohei; Aihara, Jun; Shaimerdenov, A.*; Dyussambayev, D.*; Gizatulin, S.*; Chakrov, P.*; Sakaba, Nariaki

Proceedings of 8th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2016) (CD-ROM), p.246 - 252, 2016/11

In order to examine irradiation performance of the new Tri-structural Isotropic (TRISO) fuel for the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) at the burnup around 100 GWd/t, a capsule irradiation test was conducted by WWR-K research reactor in the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) of Kazakhstan. The irradiated TRISO fuel was designed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and fabricated in basis of the HTTR fuel technology in Japan. The fractional release of fission gas from the fuel during the irradiation shows good agreement with the predicted one released from as-fabricated failed TRISO fuel. It was suggested that unexpected additional fuel failure would not occur during the irradiation up to 100 GWd/t. In addition, the post-irradiation examination (PIE) with the irradiated fuel is planned to qualify TRISO fuel integrity and upgrade HTGR fuel design for further burnup extension.

Conceptual study of a plutonium burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor with high nuclear proliferation resistance

Goto, Minoru; Demachi, Kazuyuki*; Ueta, Shohei; Nakano, Masaaki*; Honda, Masaki*; Tachibana, Yukio; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Aihara, Jun; Fukaya, Yuji; Tsuji, Nobumasa*; et al.

Proceedings of 21st International Conference & Exhibition; Nuclear Fuel Cycle for a Low-Carbon Future (GLOBAL 2015) (USB Flash Drive), p.507 - 513, 2015/09

A concept of a plutonium burner HTGR named as Clean Burn, which has a high nuclear proliferation resistance, had been proposed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In addition to the high nuclear proliferation resistance, in order to enhance the safety, we propose to introduce PuO-YSZ TRISO fuel with ZrC coating to the Clean Burn. In this study, we conduct fabrication tests aiming to establish the basic technologies for fabrication of PuO-YSZ TRISO fuel with ZrC coating. Additionally, we conduct a quantitative evaluation of the security for the safety, a design of the fuel and the reactor core, and a safety evaluation for the Clean Burn to confirm the feasibility. This study is conducted by The University of Tokyo, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., and Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. It was started in FY2014 and will be completed in FY2017, and the first year of the implementation was on schedule.