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Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Ramamoorthy Karthikeyan, Alain Hébert
Nuclear Technology | Volume 157 | Number 3 | March 2007 | Pages 299-316
Technical Note | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3819
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of advanced resonance self-shielding models incorporated in the developmental version of the DRAGON code on estimation of reactivity coefficients of a typical CANDU-6 lattice is evaluated. The advanced self-shielding models are based on either equivalence in the dilution model or on a subgroup approach. Under equivalence in dilution models, the generalized Stamm'ler model was used with or without Riemann integration and Nordheim model. Among the subgroup approaches, the Ribon extended and the statistical self-shielding models were used. The Ribon extended self-shielding model uses mathematical probability tables, while the statistical self-shielding model uses physical probability tables. The analysis focused on four important transients, which include the fuel temperature coefficient, coolant void reactivity, pressure tube ingression, and calandria tube ingression. Four burnup stages for estimation of reactivity have been identified. To benchmark the results obtained using DRAGON, the results obtained were compared with those of MCNP5. These analyses indicated that, of all the self-shielding models, the resonance self-shielding model based on the subgroup approach using physical probability tables seems to perform well for all situations and can be recommended for CANDU-6 analyses using the code DRAGON.