Design of reactor physics experiments in support of chloride-fueled Molten Salt Reactor research & development.

In this research, the design and evaluation of reactor physics experiments in support of MSR development are discussed. The reference MSR is a 600 MW (thermal), fast neutron spectrum reactor using a mixture of NaCl–CaCl 2 –UCl 3 –PuCl 3 as fuel. An MSR core was designed with the composition of the fuel and the core geometry based on several references. The reactor physical characteristics were calculated for the core using the ERANOS code system. The results show that the reactor can be critical with a compact size and has high passive safety with negative temperature feedback coefficients. A control rod bundle made of stainless steel without the need for strong neutron absorbers was designed. It is expected that reactor physics experiments are needed for MSR development. To design reactor physics experiments for the MSR, the current research target is to use the existing critical assembly in Japan, KUCA, to its maximum potential. Several configurations are proposed and the representativity factor of the experiments to the MSR was evaluated. The results show that the designed configurations have a relatively low representativity. Therefore, a configuration based on the ZPPR using plutonium fuel and with a large size was designed. The results demonstrate that the experimental configuration is very similar to the MSR. This suggests that to design reactor physics experiments for MSR, a critical facility like the ZPPR should be built in the future. • Design and analysis of a 600 MW (thermal) chloride fueled Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). • Experimental configurations for R&D based on Kyoto University Critical Assembly. • Experimental configurations are evaluated using the representativity factor. • Experiments in KUCA reach r R E ≈ 0.6. • Experiments based on the ZPPR facility are designed leading to r R E > 0.9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Nuclear Energy is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)