Evaluation of Concepts for Mulitiple Application Thermal Reactor for Irradiation eXperiments (MATRIX)

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a high power density test reactor specializing in fuel and materials irradiation. For more than 45 years, the ATR has provided irradiations of materials and fuels testing along with radioisotope production. Originally operated primarily in support of the Offcie of Naval Reactors (NR), the mission has gradually expanded to cater to other customers, such as the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), private industry, and universities. Unforeseen circumstances may lead to the decommissioning of ATR, thus leaving the U.S. Government without a large-scale materials irradiation capability to meet the needs of its nuclear energy and naval reactor missions. In anticipation of this possibility, work was performed under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program to investigate test reactor concepts that could satisfy the current missions of the ATR along with an expanded set of secondary missions. This work can be viewed as an update to a project from the 1990’s called the Broad Application Test Reactor (BATR). In FY 2012, a survey of anticipated customer needs was performed, followed by analysis of the original BATR concepts with fuel changed to low-enriched uranium. Departing from these original BATR designs, four concepts were identified for further analysis in FY2013. The project informally adopted the acronym MATRIX (Multiple-Application Thermal Reactor for Irradiation eXperiments). This report discusses analysis of the four MATRIX concepts along with a number of variations on these main concepts. Designs were evaluated based on their satisfaction of anticipated customer requirements and the “Cylindrical” variant was selected for further analysis of options. This downselection should be considered preliminary and the backup alternatives should include the other three main designs. The baseline Cylindrical MATRIX design is expected to be capable of higher burnup than the ATR (or longer cycle length given a particular batch scheme). The volume of test space in IPTs is larger in MATRIX than in ATR with comparable magnitude of neutron flux. In addition to the IPTs, the Cylindrical MATRIX concept features test spaces at the centers of fuel assemblies where very high fast flux can be achieved. This magnitude of fast flux is similar to that achieved in the ATR A-positions, however, the available volume having these conditions is greater in the MATRIX design than in the ATR. From the analyses performed in this work, it appears that the Cylindrical MATRIX design can be designed to meet the anticipated needs of the ATR replacement reactor. However, this statement must be qualified by acknowledging that this design is quite immature, and therefore any requirements currently met must be re-evaluated as the design matures. Also, some of the requirements were not strictly met, but are believed to be achievable once features to be added later are designed

Use and Storage of Test and Operations Data from the High Temperature Test Reactor Acquired by the US Government from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency

This document describes the use and storage of data from the High Temperature Test Reactor (HTTR) acquired from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) by the U.S. Government for high temperature reactor research under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project

Hot Isostatic Press (Hip) Vitrification of Radwaste Concretes

Properly formulated and properly ``canned`` radwaste concretes can be readily hot-isostatically-pressed (HIPed) into materials that exhibit performance equivalent to typical radwaste-type glasses. The HIPing conditions (temperature/pressure) required to turn a concrete waste form into a ``vitrified`` waste form are quite mild and therefore consistent with both safety and high productivity. This paper describes the process and its products with reference to its potential application to Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP) reprocessing wastes

The DOE Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program

The Department of Energy has established the Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development and Qualification Program to address the following overall goals: Provide a baseline fuel qualification data set in support of the licensing and operation of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). Gas-reactor fuel performance demonstration and qualification comprise the longest duration research and development (R&D) task for the NGNP feasibility. The baseline fuel form is to be demonstrated and qualified for a peak fuel centerline temperature of 1250°C. Support near-term deployment of an NGNP by reducing market entry risks posed by technical uncertainties associated with fuel production and qualification. Utilize international collaboration mechanisms to extend the value of DOE resources. The Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development and Qualification Program consists of five elements: fuel manufacture, fuel and materials irradiations, postirradiation examination (PIE) and safety testing, fuel performance modeling, and fission product transport and source term evaluation. An underlying theme for the fuel development work is the need to develop a more complete fundamental understanding of the relationship between the fuel fabrication process, key fuel properties, the irradiation performance of the fuel, and the release and transport of fission products in the NGNP primary coolant system. Fuel performance modeling and analysis of the fission product behavior in the primary circuit are important aspects of this work. The performance models are considered essential for several reasons, including guidance for the plant designer in establishing the core design and operating limits, and demonstration to the licensing authority that the applicant has a thorough understanding of the in-service behavior of the fuel system. The fission product behavior task will also provide primary source term data needed for licensing. An overview of the program and recent progress will be presented

Investigating the Use of 3-D Deterministic Transport for Core Safety Analysis

An LDRD (Laboratory Directed Research and Development) project is underway at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to demonstrate the feasibility of using a three-dimensional multi-group deterministic neutron transport code (Attila®) to perform global (core-wide) criticality, flux and depletion calculations for safety analysis of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). This paper discusses the ATR, model development, capabilities of Attila, generation of the cross-section libraries, comparisons to experimental results for Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC) concepts, and future work planned with Attila

Sample Preparation Techniques for Grain Boundary Characterization of Annealed TRISO-Coated Particles

Crystallographic information about layers of silicon carbide (SiC) deposited by chemical vapor deposition is essential to understanding layer performance, especially when the the layers are in nonplanar geometries (e.g., spherical). Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to analyze spherical SiC layers using a different sampling approach that applied focused ion beam (FIB) milling to avoid the negative impacts of traditional sample polishing and address the need for very small samples of irradiated materials for analysis. The mechanical and chemical grinding and polishing of sample surfaces can introduce lattice strain and result in the unequal removal of SiC and the surrounding layers of different materials due to the hardness differences among these materials. The nature of layer interfaces is thought to play a key role in the performance of SiC; therefore, the analysis of representative samples at these interfacial areas is crucial. In the work reported herein, a FIB was employed in a novel manner to prepare a more representative sample for EBSD analysis from tristructural-isotropic layers that are free of effects introduced by mechanical and chemical preparation methods. In addition, the difficulty of handling neutron-irradiated microscopic samples (such as those analyzed in this work) has been simplified using pretilted mounting stages. The results showed that while the average grain sizes of samples may be similar, the grain boundary characteristics can differ significantly. Furthermore, low-angle grain boundaries comprised 25% of all boundaries in the FIB-prepared sample compared to only 1% to 2% in the polished sample from the same particle. This study demonstrated that the characterization results from FIB-prepared samples provide more repeatable results due to the elimination of the effects of sample preparation

Reactor Pressure Vessel Temperature Analysis for Prismatic and Pebble-Bed VHTR Designs

Analyses were performed to determine maximum temperatures in the reactor pressure vessel for two potential Very-High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) designs during normal operation and during a depressurized conduction cooldown accident. The purpose of the analyses was to aid in the determination of appropriate reactor vessel materials for the VHTR. The designs evaluated utilized both prismatic and pebble-bed cores that generated 600 MW of thermal power. Calculations were performed for fluid outlet temperatures of 900 and 950 °C, corresponding to the expected range for the VHTR. The analyses were performed using the RELAP5-3D and PEBBED-THERMIX computer codes. Results of the calculations were compared with preliminary temperature limits derived from the ASME pressure vessel code

A COMPARISON OF PEBBLE MIXING AND DEPLETION ALGORITHMS USED IN PEBBLE-BED REACTOR EQUILIBRIUM CYCLE SIMULATION

Recirculating pebble-bed reactors are distinguished from all other reactor types by the downward movement through and reinsertion of fuel into the core during operation. Core simulators must account for this movement and mixing in order to capture the physics of the equilibrium cycle core. VSOP and PEBBED are two codes used to perform such simulations, but they do so using different methods. In this study, a simplified pebble-bed core with a specified flux profile and cross sections is used as the model for conducting analyses of two types of burnup schemes. The differences between the codes are described and related to the differences observed in the nuclide densities in pebbles discharged from the core. Differences in the methods for computing fission product buildup and average number densities lead to significant differences in the computed core power and eigenvalue. These test models provide a key component of an overall equilibrium cycle benchmark involving neutron transport, cross section generation, and fuel circulation

CFD Analysis for Flow Behavior Characteristics in the Upper Plenum during low flow/low pressure transients for the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (GCFR)

Gas coolant at low pressure exhibits poor heat transfer characteristics. This is an area of concern for the passive response targeted by the Generation IV GCFR design. For the first 24 hour period, the decay heat removal for the GCFR design is dependent on an actively powered blower, which also would reduce the temperature in the fuel during transients, before depending on the passive operation. Natural circulation cooling initiates when the blower is stopped for the final phase of the decay heat removal, as under forced convection the core decay heat is adequately cooled by the running blower. The ability of the coolant to flow in the reverse direction or having recirculation, when the blowers are off, necessitates more understanding of the flow behavior characteristics in the upper plenum. The work done here focuses primarily on the period after the blower has been turned off, as the core is adequately cooled when the blowers are running, thus there was no need to carry out the analysis for the first 24 hours. In order to understand the plume behavior for the GCFR upper plenum several cases were run, with air, helium and helium-air mixture. For each case, the FLUENT was used to characterize the steady state velocity vectors and corresponding temperature in the upper plenum under passive decay heat removal conditions. This study will provide better insight into the plume interaction in the upper plenum at low flow and low pressure conditions

Hot Isostatic Press (HIP) vitrification of radwaste concretes

Properly formulated and properly ``canned`` radwaste concretes can be readily hot-isostatically-pressed (HIPed) into materials that exhibit performance equivalent to typical radwaste-type glasses. The HIPing conditions (temperature/pressure) required to turn a concrete waste form into a ``vitrified`` waste form are quite mild and therefore consistent with both safety and high productivity. This paper describes the process and its products with reference to its potential application to Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP) reprocessing wastes