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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.
Yong-Qian Shi, Pu Xia, Zhang-Lin Luo, Zhi-Xiang Zhao, Dazhao Ding, Yi-Guo Li, Qin-Fu Zhu, Hai-Hong Xia, Ji-Gen Li, Wei Zhang, Jian Cao, Yan-Hui Quan, Huang-Da Luo, Xiaofei Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 159 | Number 1 | July 2007 | Pages 106-118
Technical Paper | Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3858
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper presents the design objectives and structure of China's accelerator-driven subcritical system subcritical assembly Venus-1. The core of Venus-1 is a coupled core with a fast neutron zone and a thermal neutron zone. The fast neutron zone is at the center of the core and is formed by natural uranium fuel. A fast neutron spectrum field can be produced in the fast neutron zone and used for transmutation. The thermal neutron zone surrounds the fast neutron zone and is formed by low-enriched uranium fuel; it is a fission zone. Venus-1 is driven by an Am-Be or other steady neutron source (252Cf, D-D reaction or D-T reaction) to research the effect of an external neutron source with different energies on it or is driven by a D-T pulsed neutron source through the China Institute of Atomic Energy pulsed neutron generator to research the dynamic characteristic. On July 18, 2005, the first fuel element was loaded into the Venus-1 subcritical assembly, and some preliminary experiments on subcritical and neutron distribution have been performed. The final load has been determined by preliminary experiments on Venus-1. The relative neutron importance of the external source, the relative distribution of the thermal neutron flux in the fast neutron zone, and the variation of the neutron count with the addition of natural uranium fuel also have been determined by preliminary experiments on Venus-1.