Study of natural uranium fuel for a new reactor design TEPLATOR

Abstract

The TEPLATOR is a new type of nuclear reactor which the main purpose is producing heat for district heating. It is designed as a special thermal reactor with 55 fuel channels for fuel assemblies, which is moderated and cooled by heavy water and operated around atmospheric pressure. The TEPLATOR DEMO is designed for the use of irradiated fuel from PWR or BWR reactors. Using heavy water as the moderator and coolant in this reactor concept allows to use natural uranium as an alternative fuel in case that the irradiated fuel is not available for some reason. This solution is suitable because of the price of natural uranium and the absence of costly fuel enrichment. This article is focused on deeper analyses of alternative suitable fuel for TEPLATOR based on natural uranium and new fuel geometries. This work builds on previous research on alternative fuel material and geometry for the TEPLATOR. It is mainly concerned with the neutronic development of fuel assemblies, the possibility of manufacturing of developed fuel types, and optimization of fuel management and uranium consumption. This article contains predetermined candidates for suitable fuel geometries and new untested fuel geometry types with some new advantages. Finally, optimization of the whole reactor core and number of fuel channels was made in terms of increased safety and higher fuel burn-up. Presented calculations were performed by Monte Carlo code Seprent.

Keywords

• teplator
• natural uranium
• serpent code