Tsugio Yokoyama

Current Design Status of Sodium Cooled Super-Safe, Small and Simple Reactor

CRIEPI has been exploring to realize a small-sized nuclear reactor for the needs of dispersed energy source and multi-purpose reactor. And a conceptual design of 4S (Super-Safe, Small and Simple) reactor was proposed to meet the following design requirements: (1) All temperature feedback reactivity coefficients including whole core sodium void coefficient are negative; (2) The core integrity is secured against all anticipated transient without reactor scram; (3) No emergency power nor active mitigating system is required; (4) The reactivity core life time is more than 10 years; (5) Its construction, maintenance and operation are expected to be very simple by eliminating active components from inside of a reactor vessel. The 4S reactor is a sodium cooled fast reactor and its reactivity is not controlled by neutron absorber rods but by neutron reflectors. An electrical output is 50 MW. This paper describes a design modification to enhance the feasibility from the previous 4S design. A core active height can be shortened to 1.5 m from 4.0m to keep the reactivity characteristics. An averaged fuel burn-up is up to 70 GWD/ton and a pressure drop at the core region is less than 0.1 MPa. A reactivity control system is modified according with the core design change. As for the steam generator design, sodium-water reaction accidents must be taken into account as a design basis event for the utilization of the secondary sodium coolant. Therefore, a modified plate type heat exchanger is proposed as a steam generator. It may be possible to develop a compact steam generator, which is free from sodium-water reaction accidents and to eliminate the secondary sodium systems. The 4S reactor without secondary system has been proposed as a candidate design.Copyright

A New Concept of the 4S Reactor and Thermal Hydraulic Characteristics

CRIEPI (Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry) has been developing the 4S reactor (Super Safe, Small and Simple reactor) for application to dispersed energy supply and multipurpose use, with Toshiba Corporation [1,2,3,4]. Electrical output of the 4S reactor is from 10MW to 50MW, and burn-up reactivity loss is regulated by neutron reflectors. The reflector that surrounds the core is gradually lifted up to control the reactivity according to core burn-up. 30year core lifetime without refueling can be achieved with the 10MW 4S (4S-10M) reactor. All temperature feedback reactivity coefficients, including coolant void reactivity, of the 4S-10M are negative during the 30year lifetime. A neutron absorption rod is set at the center of the reactor core with the ultimate shutdown rod. The neutron absorption rod used during the former 14 years is moved to the upper part of the reactor core, and the operation is continued through the latter 16 years. The pressure loss of the reactor core is lower than 2kg/cm2 to enable effective utilization of the natural circulation force, and the average burn-up rate is 76GWD/t. To suppress the influence of the scale disadvantage, loop-type reactor design is one of the candidates for the 4S-10M. The size of the reactor vessel can be miniaturized by adopting the loop type design (4S-10ML). In the 4S-10ML design, integrated equipment which includes primary and secondary electromagnetic pumps (EMPs), an intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) and a steam generator (SG) is adopted and collocated by the reactor vessel. The decay heat removal systems of 4S-10ML consist of the reactor vessel air cooling system (RVACS) and SGACS (a similar system to the RVACS, with air cooling of the outside of the integrated equipment vessel). They are completely passive systems. To decrease the construction cost of the reactor building, a step mat structure and the horizontal aseismic structure are adopted. 4S-10ML has unique features in the cooling systems such as integrated equipment and two separate passive decay heat removal systems which operate at the same time. To evaluate the design feasibility, the transition analyses were executed by the CERES code developed by CRIEPI [5]. In this paper, the design concept of 4S-10ML, and the results of the plant transition analyses are described.© 2004 ASME

Utilization Research and Development of Hydride Materials in Fast Reactors

Metal hydrides have high hydrogen atom density, which is equivalent to that of liquid water. An application of the hafnium hydride has been investigated as a neutron absorber in the Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). Fast neutrons are efficiently moderated by hydrogen in Hf hydrides and are absorbed by Hf. Since three isotopes of Hf have large cross sections, increase in the life of control rod is considered by Hf hydride. Results of design study of the core with Hf hydride control rods shows that the long lived hafnium hydride control rod is feasible in the large sodium-cooled FBR. Results of irradiation test conducted in BOR-60 has demonstrated the integrity of the capsules during irradiation. Na bonded capsule has an advantage in confinement effect of hydrogen compared with He bonded one. An application of hydride technique to transmutation target of MA was also discussed. MA hydride target is able to enhance the transmutation rate in FBR.

Enhancement of Transmutation of Minor Actinides by Hydride Target

A hydride target including minor actinides (MA) is able to enhance the transmutation rate in a fast breeding reactor (FBR) without degradation of core safety characters. Fast neutrons generated in the core region of the FBR are moderated in the MA-hydride target assemblies and then efficiently absorbed by MA. The MA-hydride target pin has been designed in the light of recent research of hydride materials. This chapter shows the feasibility of MA transmutation by an existing reactor, Monju.

Design study for an advanced liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core with high burnup

Design studies are performed for a commercial liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core that can achieve a burnup of 200 GWd/t. A plutonium-type asymmetric parfait core with two different plutonium-enriched zones in the axial direction as well as in the radial direction is studied. This core concept solves core design problems related to high burnup, and it is possible to achieve a burnup of 200 GWd/t with this concept. A core with ductless fuel assemblies suitable for high burnup is also studied. An axially heterogeneous core was selected from among various concepts. It is possible to realize a core with a burnup of 200 GWd/t, a compact size, and a lower core pressure drop than the demonstration reactor design.

An Analysis of Gamma-Ray Energy Deposition in a Heterogeneous Liquid-Metal Fast Breeder Reactor

Gamma-dose analysis was performed on an absolute-value basis at the zero-power plutonium reactor (ZPPR)-13B/4 critical assembly, which was one of the benchmark radially heterogeneous 650-MW (electric) liquid-metal reactor cores, to validate the current data and methods applicable to power reactor design calculations. Discussions of particular aspects inherent to the critical measurements, such as heterogeneity in the ZPPR plate cells and delayed fission product gamma effect, are included. The results show that the gamma-energy deposition distribution was reproduced within an accuracy of {approximately} 10% in cores that had complicated fuel and internal blanket layouts.