Abstract
This work tests the mixed oxide (MOX) fabrication calculation functionality of the nuclear fuel cycle simulator (NFCS) ORION. Two studies are performed: (1) Two different methods of calculating the weight fraction of Pu/Am in MOX fuel, namely the fixed fraction (FF) and effective fissile mass coefficient (EFMC) method, are discussed and the results of 250 calculations using each method are compared. (2) The EFMC method is compared to results from SCALE/TRITON calculations on the fitness of the EFMC method to predict MOX quality. The authors conclude that the FF method is not suitable for fuel cycle simulations involving multi-stage fuel recycling, and that the EFMC method is an acceptable method for predicting MOX for lower burnups, but not for higher burnups. The authors also suggest two ways to improve the EFMC method - by evaluating the fissile value of MOX at its anticipated beginning of cycle (BOC) composition, or by adding a secondary term in the MOX fissile value calculation to take into account for breeding effects with burnup.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 881-887 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| State | Published - 2020 |
| Event | 14th International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference, GLOBAL 2019 and Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference, TOP FUEL 2019 - Seattle, United States Duration: Sep 22 2019 → Sep 27 2019 |
Conference
| Conference | 14th International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference, GLOBAL 2019 and Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference, TOP FUEL 2019 |
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| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Seattle |
| Period | 09/22/19 → 09/27/19 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy for funding this work and to thank their colleagues in the Systems Analysis and Integration Campaign for their collaboration, and the participants of the FIT benchmark. 1Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan)
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| US Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Nuclear Energy |