Design of a prismatic CERMET megawatt gas-cooled reactor(PC-MGCR) for deep space exploration

IF 1.9 3区工程技术 Q1 NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Annals of Nuclear Energy Pub Date : 2024-10-19 DOI:10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110946

Yuhan Fan , Rui Yan , Guifeng Zhu , Liang Chen , Naiwen Zhang , Yang Zou

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Micro reactor is an ideal choice for future deep space exploration mission due to their advantage of stability, long life and minisize. In this study, a Megawatt Gas-Cooled Reactor concept design using Prismatic CERMET(PC-MGCR) is proposed. It aims to support 1MWe power for both electric thrusters and detection equipment operation in 10 years. The helium-xenon binary gas is simultaneously used for reactor coolant and working medium of the Brayton cycle to simplify the system. The influence of core parameters of fuel pin, core size, radial reflector on reactor miniaturization and neutron economy is investigated by Monte Carlo code OpenMC. The difference of Spectral Shift Absorbers(SSAs), control drum(CD) and control rod(CR) on typical accident critical safety is analyzed. An applicable control rod layout scheme with maximum shutdown depth is determined based on control rod interference and flux distribution. The control rod and the control drum represent a similar variation on the effective multiplication factor, with the maximum differential worth appearing at 60˚ and 17.5 cm, respectively. The core can tolerate the failure of 6 control drums and 1 control rod or all control drums in the dropping accident, which reveals high security. The reactor core optimization result based on miniaturization and falling accident critical safety objectives are further obtained. The parameters of the optimized core are evaluated quantitatively from various aspects. The result shows that PC-MGCR has an extremely hard neutron spectrum and a negative fuel temperature coefficient of −0.258pcm/K with a sensitive control and inherent safety. The power and flux distribution of the active core in different states are obtained. Core power distribution is increasingly flat due to unevenly depletion. The comparison results with existing schemes demonstrates the PC-MGCR exists visible advantages in increasing the fuel inventory, the miniaturization, burnup depth and high-temperature operation. Relevant design and analysis results can provide the reference for the subsequent PC-MGCR.

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设计用于深空探测的棱柱形 CERMET 兆瓦级气冷反应堆（PC-MGCR）

微型反应堆具有稳定、寿命长、体积小等优点，是未来深空探测任务的理想选择。本研究提出了一种使用棱镜 CERMET（PC-MGCR）的兆瓦级气冷反应堆概念设计。其目标是在 10 年内为电动推进器和探测设备的运行提供 1MWe 的功率。氦氙二元气体同时用作反应堆冷却剂和布雷顿循环的工作介质，以简化系统。利用蒙特卡洛代码 OpenMC 研究了燃料销、堆芯尺寸、径向反射器等堆芯参数对反应堆小型化和中子经济性的影响。分析了谱移吸收器（SSA）、控制鼓（CD）和控制棒（CR）对典型事故临界安全性的影响。根据控制棒干扰和通量分布，确定了具有最大关断深度的适用控制棒布局方案。控制棒和控制鼓的有效乘数变化相似，最大差值分别出现在 60˚ 和 17.5 cm。堆芯可承受 6 个控制鼓和 1 个控制棒或所有控制鼓在跌落事故中失效，安全性高。进一步得出了基于小型化和跌落事故关键安全目标的堆芯优化结果。从多方面对优化后的堆芯参数进行了定量评估。结果表明，PC-MGCR 具有极硬的中子能谱和 -0.258pcm/K 的负燃料温度系数，具有灵敏的控制性和固有安全性。研究还获得了不同状态下活动堆芯的功率和磁通量分布。由于耗竭不均匀，堆芯功率分布越来越平缓。与现有方案的比较结果表明，PC-MGCR 在增加燃料库存、小型化、燃烧深度和高温运行方面具有明显优势。相关设计和分析结果可为后续 PC-MGCR 提供参考。

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来源期刊

Annals of Nuclear Energy 工程技术-核科学技术

CiteScore

4.30

自引率

21.10%

发文量

632

审稿时长

7.3 months

期刊介绍： Annals of Nuclear Energy provides an international medium for the communication of original research, ideas and developments in all areas of the field of nuclear energy science and technology. Its scope embraces nuclear fuel reserves, fuel cycles and cost, materials, processing, system and component technology (fission only), design and optimization, direct conversion of nuclear energy sources, environmental control, reactor physics, heat transfer and fluid dynamics, structural analysis, fuel management, future developments, nuclear fuel and safety, nuclear aerosol, neutron physics, computer technology (both software and hardware), risk assessment, radioactive waste disposal and reactor thermal hydraulics. Papers submitted to Annals need to demonstrate a clear link to nuclear power generation/nuclear engineering. Papers which deal with pure nuclear physics, pure health physics, imaging, or attenuation and shielding properties of concretes and various geological materials are not within the scope of the journal. Also, papers that deal with policy or economics are not within the scope of the journal.