NDLI: Computational investigation of on-line interrogation of pebble bed reactor fuel

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Hawari, A.I. Jianwei Chen
Copyright Year	1963
Abstract	Pebble bed reactors are characterized by multipass fuel systems in which spherical fuel pebbles are circulated through the core until they reach a proposed burnup limit (80000-100000 MWD/MTU). For such reactors, the fuel is assayed on-line to ensure that the burnup limit is not breached. We considered assaying the fuel using an HPGe detector to perform passive gamma-ray spectrometry of fission products. Since neither fresh nor irradiated fuel is readily available, computer simulations were utilized to identify the radionuclides that can be used as burnup indicators, and to visualize the gamma-ray spectra at various levels of burnup. Specifically, we used the ORIGEN-MONTEBURNS-MCNP code system. This allowed the establishment of the burnup dependent one-group gas reactor cross-sections for the radionuclides of interest. Subsequently, ORIGEN was used to simulate in-core pebble depletion to establish the irradiated pebble isotopics. Finally, the codes MCNP and SYNTH were used to simulate the response of the HPGe gamma-ray spectrometer. The results show that absolute and relative indicators can be used on-line to determine unambiguously the enrichment and burnup on a pebble-by-pebble basis. The activity of Cs-137 or the activity ratio of Co-60/Cs-134 can be combined with the activity ratio of Np-239/I-132 to yield the enrichment and burnup information. To use the relative indicators, a relative efficiency calibration of the gamma-ray spectrometer can be performed using the La-140 gamma lines that are emitted by the irradiated pebble. I-132, Cs-134, Cs-137, La-140, and Np-239 are produced upon the irradiation of the fuel. Co-60 is produced by doping the fuel with a small amount (/spl sim/100 ppm) of Co-59. Using this approach, the uncertainty in burnup determination due to factors such as power history variation, detector efficiency calibration, and counting statistics is expected to remain in the range of /spl plusmn/5% to /spl plusmn/10%.
Sponsorship	IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences (CANPS) Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab. APS College of William and Mary Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility NASA Defence Nuclear Agency Sandia National Laboratories Jet Propulsion Laboratory Brookhaven Nat. Lab. Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab IEEE/NPPS Radiat. Effects Committee Defence Nuclear Agency/DoD Sandia National Laboratories/DOE Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA Phillips Lab./DoD
Starting Page	1659
Ending Page	1664
Page Count	6
File Size	194199
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00189499
Volume Number	52
Issue Number	5
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2005-10-01
Publisher Place	U.S.A.
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Inductors Fuels Spectroscopy Calibration Gamma ray detection Gamma ray detectors Computer simulation Visualization Doping Uncertainty pebble bed reactor Assay burnup enrichment fuel gamma-ray nuclear reactor
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Nuclear and High Energy Physics Electrical and Electronic Engineering Nuclear Energy and Engineering

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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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