Neutronic Analysis of Small Long-Life Modular Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) with Thorium Nitride Fuel Using OpenMC M. Khanifuddin Zuhri (a), Ratna Dewi Syarifah (a*), Nuri Trianti (b)
a) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Jember, Jember, Indonesia
b) Research Center for Nuclear Reactor Technology, Research Organization for Nuclear Energy, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bandung, Indonesia
*rdsyarifah.fmipa[at]unej.ac.id
Abstract
Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are an alternative to fossil fuel-based power plants, such as coal, which harm the environment and human health. NPPs are built to meet electricity needs and have advantages like being environmentally friendly and economical. One reactor type in NPPs is the boiling water reactor (BWR), currently being developed into a small modular reactor (SMR). The operational duration of an SMR-type BWR can be determined by analyzing the effective multiplication factor (keff) values generated during the combustion process. This research used a homogeneous fuel design with thorium nitride, 8% enriched U-233, and 6% Pa-231. This research aims to determine the most optimal operational outcome for a small long-life BWR without refueling for 30 years. The research was conducted through simulations using the OpenMC program to obtain the most optimal keff value. The most optimal keff value at each parameter optimization stage was then used in the subsequent stages. The final results show that the BWR achieved the most optimal keff value using parameters axial steam percentage, fuel compound density, ENDF-8 library, fuel pin arrangement without assembly, nitrogen-14 nuclide, thermal scattering data, an input power of 100 MWth, and a 66% fuel fraction. These parameters allow the BWR to operate for 30 years with a maximum excess reactivity of 1.96% ∆-k/k.
Keywords: Neutronics, Boiling water reactor, Thorium nitride, OpenMC
Topic: Theoretical and Computational Nuclear Physics
