Analysis of Criticality and Fissile Material Production in Pebble Fuel of HTR-10 Using OpenMC Code
Ahmad Muzaki Mabruri (a*), Nuri Trianti (b), Zaki Suud (a,c), Efrizon Umar (b), Ratna Dewi Syarifah (d)

a) Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia
*amuzaki073[at]gmail.com

b) Nuclear Reactor Technology, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Bandung, Indonesia

c) Department of Physics, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

d) Department of Physics, University of Jember, Jember, Indonesia

Abstract

Analysis of Criticality and Fissile Material Production in Pebble Fuel of HTR-10 Using OpenMC Code has been conducted. Pebble fuel is a type of nuclear reactor fuel consisting of TRISO particles randomly dispersed within a kernel and surrounded by several layers, forming a unified pebble. The analysis was performed using Monte Carlo calculations with OpenMC. The pebble fuel model is assumed to operate at a constant power of 0.54 kW and 4.00 kW for 12 months, representing the average operating power of the HTR-10 design and the maximum operating power for a single pebble. Calculation results with various nuclear data libraries indicate that at maximum power, the pebble can only last for 7 months. Meanwhile, at 0.54 kW power, the pebble can maintain criticality until the end of the burn-up period, with the production of fissile plutonium material amounting to 0.8% of the total U-238 present at the beginning of the burn-up. This shows that the pebble fuel design has good proliferation resistance and is able to maintain criticality longer under actual operating conditions

Keywords: HTR-10- Pebble fuel- Proliferation- Triso.

Topic: Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems