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NUCLEAR ENERGY
Annals of Nuclear Energy 35 (2008) 14841491
www.elsevier.com/locate/anucene
Abstract
The absorber rods of 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR), which is under construction at Kalpakkam, have been
designed to provide sucient shutdown margin during normal and accidental conditions for ensuring the safe shut down. There are nine
control and safety rods (CSR) and 3 diverse safety rods (DSR). Absorber material used is initially 65% enriched B4C. Based on the
reported experiments in PHENIX reactor and design of absorber rods in SUPERPHENIX, the design of CSR is modied by introducing
20 cm length natural B4C at the top and bottom of absorber column and maintaining the remaining portion with 65% enriched B4C. This
design ensures sucient shutdown margin (SDM) during normal operation and also during the one stuck rod condition. For comparison
of the above two designs, a CSR of 57% of enrichment was considered which gives the same worth as the revised CSR design with natural
B4C sections in top and bottom. There is signicant savings in the initial inventory of enriched B4C for CSR. The annual requirement of
enriched boron also reduces. This new CSR can last for about 5 cycles, based on its clad life. But, it is planned to be replaced after every 3
cycles (1 cycle equals 180 efpd) of operation due to radiation damage eects in hexcan D9 steel. Use of ferritic steel for hexcan can extend
the life of CSR to 5 cycles.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Two types of control rod mechanisms are used in the
pool type, sodium-cooled, mixed oxide fueled 500 MWe
prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) (Chetal et al.,
2006), which is under construction at Kalpakkam, India.
Normal reactor startup, shutdown and reactivity control
during operation are accomplished by using nine CSRs,
which acts as the primary shutdown system. The other system has three DSRs, which are used only for the emergency
shutdown. These two systems are independently capable of
achieving cold shutdown of the reactor in any eventuality
(Mohanakrishnan, 2004). Fig. 1 gives the equilibrium core
conguration of PFBR showing the positions of all absorber rods (AR).
Even though the neutronic life of the AR can be determined by loss of its reactivity worth, the end of AR life
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: devan@igcar.gov.in (K. Devan).
0306-4549/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2008.01.013
1485
20 cm
111 cm
71cm
20 cm
Core-1 (85)
Core-2 (96)
SS Reflector (138)
CSR (9)
DSR (3)
Uniform CSR
57 % enriched B4C
Revised CSR
65 % enriched B4C
Nat. B4C
1486
XSET-98
ATOMIX:
CONSYST
Mixture Data
EFCONSY-1
Self-shielded
cross sections
Heterogeneity correction
for AR cross sections
COHINT
FARCOB
Geometry data
Burnup Data
Fig. 3. Flow Diagram of the Computer Codes used in the Design Calculations.
10000
Revised CSR
Uniform CSR
1487
8000
6000
4000
2000
20
40
60
80
100
Table 1
AR insertion worth for BOL core
State of the core and availability of AR
Uniform CSR
Dk/kav (pcm)
Revised CSR
Dk/kav (pcm)
All AR
9 CSR
3 DSR
8 CSR
2 DSR
13,417
9360
3980
7713
2441
13,386
9334
3977
7701
2444
160
Revised CSR
Uniform CSR
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
15
30
45
60
75
90
105
Core-1 (88)
Core-2 (90)
Blanket (114)
Steel (138)
B4C (78)
(not all shown)
CSR ( 9)
DSR ( 3)
Diluents ( 8)
Instrumental Sub-assembly ( 1)
Fig. 6. PFBR Core Conguration of BOL with 8 Diluents and 1 ICSA.
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Case
Total
9 CSR
8 CSR
3 DSR
2 DSR
All fresh
BOL core with
ICSA + 8 diluents
13,386
13,173
9334
9572
7701
8124
3977
3843
2444
2354
Table 2
AR insertion worth (pcm) at BOL with revised CSR
insertion worth of revised CSR is less, as expected. The differential worth from 1020 cm insertion is about 35
60 pcm/cm. This is adequate to provide sucient negative
reactivity insertion rate in case of SCRAM. Plant reactivity
transients requiring safe shutdown have been analyzed
(Singh et al., 1996) for shut down with CSR not available
and only two out of three DSR available. If the CSR system is available, safe shutdown is reached more quickly
as CSR worth is signicantly higher than DSR worth.
The insertion worth of revised CSR is higher compared
to uniform CSR beyond 60 cm insertion. This is due to
the fact that axial power shape is less depressed near core
middle height with initial insertion of natural B4C section,
which results in higher worth when the enriched portion
enters the high ux region.
During rst approach to criticality, it is planned to use
one Instrumented Central Source Assembly (ICSA) and
eight diluent sub-assemblies. Fig. 6 gives the locations of
ICSA and diluent sub-assemblies. Diluents are fertile subassembly used in the fresh or beginning of life (BOL) core
to reduce the core excess reactivity. It can be seen from
Table 3
Reactivity eects at BOL
No.
Reactivity
(pcm)
(i)
436 87
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
886 177
2147 215
500
Table 4
Minimum SDM for dierent core states at BOL with eight diluent and one ICSA
Case
no.
Excess reactivity to be
controlled: errors added
(pcm)
AR worth
(pcm)
SDM at
450 C
(pcm)
SDM at 200 C Np
eect included (pcm)
1
2
3
4
5
6
All AR
9 CSR
3 DSR
8 CSR
2 DSR
7 CSR + 1 CSR stuck at
30 cm + 1 CSR out
2 DSR + 1 CSR moving
out of the core
4448
4448
1586
4448
1586
4448
13,173
9572
3843
8124
2354
6472
11,724
8519
3420
7230
2095
5760
7930
4725
2488
3436
1163
1966
7146
3941
1704
2652
379
1182
2310
2056
933
149
7
a
191 pcm added due to uncontrolled withdrawal of a CSR from operating condition at full power.
of CSR system coupled with failure of one DSR of maximum worth (Case 5).
In the unlikely event of uncontrolled withdrawal of one
CSR having maximum worth from the operating condition, followed by the non-availability of DSR system and
one more CSR gets stuck (Case 6), cold shut down with
nearly 3$ sub-criticality is possible. It is computed that
the reactivity addition due to the uncontrolled withdrawal
of one CSR of maximum worth from the operating position results a net positive reactivity addition of 191 pcm
(Sathiyasheela et al., 2002). For the other unlikely event
(Case 7) of one CSR going out from the operating condition followed by the non-availability of CSR system, shutdown margin available with DSR system with one DSR
stuck is 149 pcm. But, a hot SDM of 933 pcm is available
for the above least probable triple failure event. It is found
that all cases cold shutdown is achievable and only in the
last case discussed above minimum SDM is below 1$. This
event is considered to be the enveloping design basis event
resulting in minimum SDM (after discussion with the
safety regulation agency).
The aect of CSR burnup on their worth as been estimated. It is estimated that the reduction of CSR and
DSR worth due to burnup is only less than 2% and 1%,
respectively even considering average replacement after 4
cycles. For the DSR case which gives the minimum SDM
the aect of core burnup was also accounted. There is a
1.5% increase in worth of DSR as the core burns from
BOL to equilibrium. As the former eect is less than the
latter, it is estimated the minimum SDM occurs at BOL.
3.5. Life of CSR and
10
B capture
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Table 5
Life of CSR based on
10
B capture
Type
of AR
Location of
maximum capture
from bottom
Average
capture per cm3
in a cycle
Life in cycles
for 1.2 1022
captures/cm3
Uniform CSR
Revised CSR
010 cm
2030 cm
4.17 1021
2.42 1021
2.9
4.9
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4. Conclusions
Uniform CSR
Revised CSR
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0
10
15
20
25
30
Table 6
Requirement of enriched B4C for PFBR
Type of
AR
Life
(cycle)
Enriched
B4C for all
CSR at
BOL (kg)
Initial 10B
loading
including
natural B
(kg)
Annual
need of
enriched
B4C for
CSR (kg)
Annual 10B
loading
including
natural B
(kg)
Uniform
CSR
Revised
CSR
Revised
CSR
2.9
98.9
43.8
51.9
23.0
2.9
63.3
37.4
33.2
19.6
4.9
63.3
37.4
19.7
11.6
10
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