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Conference Article: Physics Studies for a Particle-Bed Gas Cooled Fast Reactor Core Design

T. A. Taiwo, M. Fatone, G. Palmiotti and R. N. Hill, Reactor Analysis and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, USA

Abstract

A Particle-Bed Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (PB-GCFR) proposed and funded under the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (USDOE NERI) Program is discussed, along with the preliminary physics results that have been obtained for a reference compact core (~50 W/cc) based on the pebble-bed system. Parametric studies are performed using homogeneous-cell and full-core physics models to investigate the impact of different fuel forms, pebble matrix material, temperature, fuel packing fraction, and core reflector material and dimension on the PB-GCFR design. One goal of this study is to assess the potential for a long-lived 300 MWt core design with a high conversion ratio that could sustain a cycle length of 15 to 30 years. The results of this study indicated that new fuel forms have to be considered in order to achieve a compact core design because the standard pebble-bed design has a significant material porosity that limits the core fuel volume fraction.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Proceedings of the Conference on High Temperature Reactors, Petten, NL, April 22-24, 2002
Organized by HTR-TN in cooperation with the European Nucler Society (ENS) and the IAEA
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
HTR-2002, pp:1-5