Neutronic analysis of (ThO2-EnrichedUO2) replacement with natUO2 fuel in a typical heavy water research reactor

Articles in Press

Document Type : Regular Paper

Authors

1 AEOI

2 atomic energy organization of Iran

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental investigations reveal that thorium-based fuel could potentially be a proper alternative in nuclear fuel cycle technology. Hence, the neutronic performance of an enriched uranium/thorium oxide fuel loading in a typical heavy water research reactor is computationally evaluated in the present study.
The obtained data shows that the thorium-based fuel has a less negative temperature coefficient in comparison with the natUO2 fuel loading. Meantime, the thorium-based fuel loading in the typical core configuration did not drastically reduce the β parameter. Rather higher conversion factor and less transuranic production of the thorium-based fuel cycle makes it favorable either to achieve higher cycle length or less dangerous and costly waste disposal.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Iranian Journal of Science

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 July 2016

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics