See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: [Link]

net/publication/312534921

Analysis and Evaluation of the Dual Fluid Reactor Concept

Thesis · January 2017

CITATIONS READS

18 849

1 author:

Xiang Wang
Harbin Engineering University
39 PUBLICATIONS 108 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Dual Fluid Reactor (DFR) View project

Study on Molten Salt Reactor View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Xiang Wang on 08 March 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN
Fakultät für Maschinenwesen

Analysis and Evaluation of

the Dual Fluid Reactor
Concept
Xiang Wang

Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Maschinenwesen der Technischen
Universität München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines

Doktor-Ingenieurs (Dr. -Ing.)

genehmigten Dissertation.

Vorsitzender:
Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rafael Macián-Juan
2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. hab. Mariusz Dabrowski
University of Szczecin

Die Dissertation wurde am 19.01.2017 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht
und durch die Fakultät für Maschinenwesen am __.__.____ angenommen.
Statement of Originality

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or
diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and
belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another
person except where due references are made.

Location Date Sign

iii
Acknowledgment

At this moment, on the only page in this work belonging to me and where I is
allowed to show up, I would like to give my most sincere thanks to my families, my
friends, my colleges, my classmates as well as any one who has helped me with my
work.

After all I would like to give my love to my parents. They have poured everything
in my education and have given everything what I need for my study and for my
living. Just till four years ago, the most part of my nancial support came form
them. As parents, what they have done has exceeded far more the word itself. Their
meticulous care and kind considerations company me, though they are ten thousand
miles away from me.

Especially I would like to give my most sincere respect to Prof. Dr. Macian who has
given me such a good opportunity to study in one of the most famous universities in
the world, Technical University of Munich. Also, in the last years, he has given to me
uncountable helps and advises on my study, from the study on the basic theories, the
choose of the theme, to the contact for the internship and the correction of my thesis,
even when he was very busy. Without his generosity in knowledge and experience
there is not any chance that I could go so far.

Secondly I would like to thank Dr. Seidl. Though we didn't talk much, he has shown
his extraordinary energy and experience gathered from his career. He is the most
appropriate person who should discuss academic topic with, especially in the eld
of the nuclear reactor. His energetic gure and accurate conversational style have
inspired me and has given me great courages from time to time.

I would also like to thank IFK, the institute of solid physics in Berlin. On the subject
DFR we have talked a lot and have discussed on the very details. It is their creativity
and brilliant idea that leads to the born of this thesis.

My college, Xun He, which was one of my best friends, is the person I must mention
and give my thanks. We have together spent the Master study and Promotion in
the same department. The conversation with him is always inspirational, joyful and
helpful. I was so glad to have such a friend in Germany.

At last I would leave this place to give my thanks and love to my girl friend S. Gao,
who encourages me when I feel depressed and supports me when I feel disappointed
in the last two years.

v
Trademarks

ANSYS, ANSYS Workbench, CFX, FLUENT and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand,
product, service and feature names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or
trademarks of ANSYS, Inc.

COMSOL Multiphysics is a registered trademark of COMSOL AB.

MATLAB, SIMULINK are registered trademarks of The MathWorks Inc.

SCALE, KENO, NEWT, TRITON, TSUNAMI are products of Oak Ridge National
Laboratory.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Windows and Windows NT are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Mi-

crosoft Corporation.

All other registered and unregistered trademarks are properties of their respective
owners.

vii
Contents

Statement of Originality iii

Acknowledgment v
Trademarks vii
Table of Contents xiii
List of Figures xvii
List of Tables xx
Abbreviation xxi
Nomenclature xxiii

I Introduction 1
1 Present Situation Of Nuclear Energy 3
1.1 Generation IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2 Objective and Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 A Brief History of the MSR 9

2.1 Early stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.2 Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2.1 Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2.2 North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2.3 Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 The Dual Fluid Reactor 19

3.1 Concept Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3.2 System Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3.2.1 Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.2.2 Fuel Salt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

ix
x CONTENTS

3.2.3 In-/Outlet Plenums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3.2.4 Reector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3.2.5 Fertile Blanket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3 Data Used for the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3.1 Geometric Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3.2 Structural Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3.3 Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.3.4 Physico-chemical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4 Calculation Tools 27
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.2 SCALE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.3 SERPENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.4 SIMULINK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.5 Fluent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.6 COMSOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

II Neutronic Calculation 29
5 Neutronic Modelling of the DFR 31
5.1 Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.2 Fuel Salt Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.3 Breeder Blanket Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.4 Calculations Performed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6 Static Calculation 35
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

6.2 Criticality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

6.2.1 Theoretical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

6.2.2 General Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.2.3 Group Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

6.3 Delayed Neutron Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.4 Generation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.5 The In-hour Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

6.6 Neutron Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

6.6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

6.6.2 Neutron Energy Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

[Link] Evaluation of dierent Codes and Versions . . . . . 48

[Link] Dierent Energy Group Structures . . . . . . . . . . 50

[Link] Dierent Nuclear Data Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . 51

CONTENTS xi

[Link] Neutron Energy Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

[Link] Dierent Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

[Link] Nuclear Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

6.6.3 Spatial Distribution of the Neutron Flux . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6.7 Reaction Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6.8 Power Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6.9 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

7 Sensitivity Analysis 69
7.1 Nuclide Importance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

7.2 Geometry Feedback Coecient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7.2.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7.2.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

7.3 Thermal Feedback Coecient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

7.3.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

7.3.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

7.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

III Burnup Calculation 79

8 Introduction 81
8.1 Calculation options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

8.1.1 Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

8.1.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

[Link] Balance of Time and Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

[Link] Evolution of ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

[Link] Material Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

8.2 Initial Load of Fuel Salt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

9 Depletion without online-Processing 89

9.1 Single Fuel Tube Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

9.1.1 Burnup Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

9.1.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

9.2 Full Core Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

9.2.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

9.2.2 Evolution of ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

9.2.3 Evolution of Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

9.2.4 Breeding Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

9.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

10 Depletion with Online-Processing 99

xii CONTENTS

10.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

10.1.1 Reprocessing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

10.1.2 Fuel Reprocessing of the DFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

[Link] Scenario I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

[Link] Scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

10.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

10.2.1 Results Of Scenario I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

[Link] Evolution of ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

[Link] Evolution of the Core Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . 106

[Link] Breeding Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

10.2.2 Results Of Scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

[Link] Evolution of ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

[Link] Evolution of the Core Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . 110

[Link] Breeding Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

10.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

IV Thermal-Hydraulic Calculation 115

11 System Analysis 117
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

11.2 Modeling Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

11.2.1 Zero-Dimensional Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

[Link] Point Kinetics Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

[Link] Thermal-Hydraulic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

[Link] System Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

[Link] Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

11.2.2 One-Dimensional Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

[Link] One-dimensional Thermal-Hydraulic Model . . . . . 125

[Link] Power Prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

11.3 Results of the Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

11.3.1 Steady-State Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

11.3.2 Transient Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

[Link] Response to a small Step Reactivity Change . . . . 129

[Link] Response To large Step Reactivity Changes . . . . . 130

[Link] Response to a Ramp Reactivity Change . . . . . . . 131

11.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

12 Single Cell Analysis 137

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

12.2 Model Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

CONTENTS xiii

12.2.1 Two-Dimensional Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

[Link] Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

[Link] Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

[Link] Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

[Link] Turbulence Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

[Link] Velocity Prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

[Link] Pressure Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

[Link] Heat Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

[Link] Wall Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

12.2.2 Three-Dimensional Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

[Link] Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

[Link] Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

[Link] Power Prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

[Link] Velocity Prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

[Link] Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

12.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

12.3.1 Steady State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

12.3.2 Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

[Link] Velocity Prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

[Link] Wall Function and y

+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

[Link] Mesh Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

[Link] Sensitivity to Fuel Salt Properties . . . . . . . . . . 172

[Link] Sensitivity to Wall Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

12.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

V Discussions 179
13 Summary 181
14 Outlook 183
14.1 Longitudinal Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

14.1.1 Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

14.1.2 Other Fuel Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

14.2 Cross-Sectional Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

14.2.1 On Reactor Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

14.2.2 On Drain Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

14.2.3 On Flow Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

14.2.4 On Inlet/Outlet Distribution Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

14.2.5 On Further Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Bibliography 200
List of Figures

1.1 Nuclear energy development before and after Fukushima Accident . . 4

1.2 Molten Salt Reactor in Gen IV[gen02, pp.39] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1
+
System structure of ARE[BCM 57] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.2 Flow diagram of two uids molten salt reactor concepts (left: 1950s,
right: 1960s)[LeB10b, Rob65] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.3 Flow diagram of MSRE[KB66] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.4 Flow diagram of MSBR[Ros72] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.5 MSFR and MOSART concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.6 IMSR, FHR and SmAHTR concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.7 TMSR and FUJI concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.1 Working principal of the DFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.2
+
Demonstration of the inlet plenum[HRW 15] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5.1 Horizontal section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

5.2 Longitudinal section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

5.3 Hexagonal array and fuel tube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

6.1 Graphic demonstration of the multiplication factor ke . . . . . . . . 36

6.2 Assessment of U-Pu fuel salt ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6.3 Comparison of ν̄ between SCALE CE and MG . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

6.4 Fission-capture ratio of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

6.5 Graphical solution of the In-hour equation of the DFR (U-Pu fuel salt) 47

6.6 Various interactions of neutrons at dierent energy ranges [LB01] . . 48

6.7 Total neutron spectrum of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

6.8 Neutron spectrum in dierent energy groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

6.9 Dierence of neutron spectrum in libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

6.10 Neutron spectrum in U-Pu fuel salt vs. theoretical spectra . . . . . . 53

6.11 Eect of the materials on the spectrum in the fuel salt . . . . . . . . 54

6.12 Dependency of neutron spectrum on neutron data libraries . . . . . . 55

6.13 Neutron spectra in materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

6.14 Characteristic peaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

6.15 Spatial neutron ux distribution for U-Pu fuel in the reactor . . . . . 61

6.16 Reaction rate density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6.17 Visualization of ssion reaction rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6.18 Fission power distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

7.1 Sensitivity of ke with regard to the most important nuclides in U-Pu
fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

7.2 Macroscopic cross section of ssionable nuclides in U-Pu salt fuel . . 71

7.3 Geometry coecients (top: a, b; middle: c, d; bottom: e,f ) . . . . . . 73

7.4 Temperature coecient of the dierent DFR zones . . . . . . . . . . 76

7.5 Joint Temperature coecient of Coolant/Reector . . . . . . . . . . 77

8.1 Optimization mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

8.2 Time comparison between parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

8.3 Memory comparison between parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

8.4 ke comparison between parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

8.5 Inventory comparison between parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

9.1 Burnup chain of the fuel salts (modied and reproduced from [wim16]) 90

9.2 ke of the single fuel tube burnup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

9.3 Interested nuclide inventories of the fuel in single fuel tube burnup . 93

9.4 Evolution of ke in depletion of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

9.5 Evolution of selected inventories in the depletion of U-Pu fuel . . . . 95

10.1 Standard PUREX owsheet[NEA67] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

10.2 Capture-to-ssion ratio of actinides for U-Pu fuel salt composition

(reproduced with data from JANIS 4.0 [SBD14]) . . . . . . . . . . . 102

10.3 Scheme for the on-line processing Scenario I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

10.4 Scheme for the online processing in scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

10.5 Schematic representation of the investigated feed options . . . . . . . 105

10.6 Change of ke in burnup with 28d-cycle fuel reprocessing . . . . . . . 106

10.7 Change of fuel composition in burnup with 28d-cycle fuel reprocessing 107

10.8 Change of breeding ratio of scenario I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

10.9 Change of ke in scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

10.10Development of ssile nuclides in fuel salt in scenario II . . . . . . . 110

10.11Development of
238 U in scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

10.12Development of other actinides in scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

10.13Gain of ssile nuclides per week in scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

10.14Change of breeding ratio of scenario II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

11.1 Layout of the DFR-0D system with subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

11.2 Layout of the node in the DFR-1D system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

LIST OF FIGURES xvii

11.3 Axial power distribution of the DFR in the simulation . . . . . . . . 127

11.4 System Steady-state Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

11.5 Transient results on small insert reactivities in step form . . . . . . . 134

11.6 Power transient on insert reactivities in step form . . . . . . . . . . . 135

11.7 Transient results on insert reactivities in ramp form . . . . . . . . . . 136

12.1 Evolution of the Geometry of the DFR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

12.2 2D model and meshes of the fuel salt tube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

12.3 Development of the velocity boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

12.4 Radial initial velocity prole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

12.5 Theoretical pressure drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

12.6 Temperature dependent Nu number of both liquids . . . . . . . . . . 150

12.7 Comparison of wall functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

12.8 Force balance of a uid control element in the duct with constant
cross-sectional ow area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

12.9 Layout of the three-dimensional model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

12.10Steady state model performance (axial) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

12.11Steady state model performance (radial) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

12.12Steady state model performance (rainbow) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

12.13Sensitivity to velocity prole. Comparisons (axial) . . . . . . . . . . 163

12.14Sensitivity to velocity prole. Comparisons (radial) . . . . . . . . . . 164

12.15Selected y
+ results on axial distribution of ow properties . . . . . . 166

12.16Completed y
+ results on axial properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

12.17Relative dierences of y
+ results in axial distribution of properties . 168

12.18Layout of mesh size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

12.19Mesh Sensitivity. Comparison (axial) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

12.20Sensitivity to the heat capacity of teh fuel salt. Comparison (axial) . 173

12.21Sensitivity to the fuel salt thermal conductivity. Comparison (axial) 174

12.22Sensitivity to wall thermal conductivity. Comparison (axial) . . . . . 176

12.23Comparison of axial temperature prole from 1D, 2D and 3D . . . . 177

List of Tables

3.1 Geometry parameter of DFR (Unit: m) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.2 Proportions of nuclides in the structural material . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.3 Temperature parameter of DFR (Unit: K) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.4 Physico-chemical properties used for the U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.5 Physico-chemical properties used for the coolant lead . . . . . . . . . 25

3.6 Physico-chemical properties used for SiC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5.1 Proportions of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.2 Breeder fertile material conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.3 Correspondence of Codes to Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6.1 Assessment of U-Pu fuel salt ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6.2 Evolution of one-group constants with U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . 43

6.3 Two group constants of the whole reactor with U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . 43

6.4 Constants of DNPs of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.5 Generation time of U-Pu fuel (10

−6 s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

6.6 Generation time of U-Pu fuel in two energy groups (10

−6 s) . . . . . 46

6.7 Dierent energy group structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

6.8 Reaction rates (1/s) of selected nuclides of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . . 64

7.1 Calculation design for temperature eect of U-Pu fuel . . . . . . . . 75

7.2 Independent temperature eect results ( pcm /∆K) . . . . . . . . . . 75

7.3 Joint temperature eect results ( pcm /∆K) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

8.1 Optimization Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

8.2 Initial loading of the fuel salt (kg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

10.1 Brief information of the investigated feed options . . . . . . . . . . . 105

10.2 Detailed information of the investigated feed options . . . . . . . . . 109

11.1 Hydraulic parameters related to ow properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

11.2 Ramped insertions of reactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

12.1 Values and relative dierences of the characteristic ratios . . . . . . . 138

xix
 xx LIST OF TABLES

12.2 f − Re dependent pressure drop (Pa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

12.3 Assessment of Nu number correlations for fuel salt . . . . . . . . . . 148

12.4 Assessment of Nu number correlations for liquid lead . . . . . . . . . 150

12.5 Extra model parameters related to ow properties . . . . . . . . . . 151

12.6 Extra model parameters related to ow properties . . . . . . . . . . 156

12.7 Cases in the steady state analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

12.8 Cases in the sensitivity to the velocity prole analysis . . . . . . . . 162

12.9 Simulation design for y

+ investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

12.10Cases in the mesh sensitivity study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

12.11Cases in the sensitivity of the fuel salt properties . . . . . . . . . . . 172

12.12Cases in the sensitivity of the wall property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

View publication stats