Feasibility study mixed oxide fuel tests in the impulse graphite reactor

Abstract

The article presents the results of computational studies to substantiate the possibility of testing the fuel of the Multipurpose hYbrid Research Reactor for a High-tech Applications reactor (MYRRHA) in the Impulse Graphite research Reactor (IGR). A scheme for conducting experiments is proposed, which allows simulating the operating conditions of MYRRHA fuel elements in a wide range of changes in their thermohydraulic parameters, including the conditions of accidents with the destruction of fuel pellets, blocking the flow area and stopping the coolant flow. A method for thermohydraulic calculations has been developed, implemented in the software environment of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. A computational model of the experimental device is developed, optimized according to the spatial partitioning grid. A turbulence model for determining the parameters of convective heat and mass transfer in a eutectic lead-bismuth alloy is selected and substantiated.

Keywords

• myrrha reactor;
• mixed-oxide fuel;
• fuel pellet destruction;
• research impulse graphite reactor;
• thermohydraulic parameters