Radiation safety and fuel performance of pebble-bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors

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

Nuclear Engineering and Design Pub Date : 2025-05-06 DOI:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2025.114116

Yu Wang , Jianzhu Cao , Bing Xia , Feng Xie , Fu Li , Haitao Wang , Jiejuan Tong , Yujie Dong , Zuoyi Zhang , Karl Verfondern , Sudarshan K. Loyalka

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Abstract

Safety of nuclear reactors is of wide concern in the world, and inherent safety of the reactors is the goal that the nuclear energy field has been pursuing over the last several decades. How to quantitatively evaluate the inherent safety, as well as the reactor radiation safety, is a long-term important scientific and technical issue. This study focused on the 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled experimental reactor (HTR-10), the only operational pebble-bed modular HTGR for testing that can operate at full power currently, measured its primary coolant activity, a key indicator of reactor radiation safety, and assessed its fuel element performance, directly affecting its inherent safety feature. A method for evaluating tri-structural isotropic coated fuel particle (TRISO CFP) failure fraction and uranium contamination share was established. The release-to-birth (R/B) ratio for fission gas nuclides was < 1 × 10⁻⁶, with a TRISO CFP failure fraction of 7.23 × 10⁻⁵ and uranium contamination share of 9.20 × 10⁻⁶. The TRISO CFP performance of HTR-10 surpassed that of previous HTGRs and irradiation tests conducted in the world, highlighting its excellent radiation safety and potential for large-scale commercial application of HTR-PM (that are related/based on HTR-10).

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球床模块化高温气冷堆的辐射安全性和燃料性能

核反应堆的安全性是国际上广泛关注的问题，反应堆的固有安全是核能领域几十年来一直追求的目标。如何定量评价反应堆的固有安全性，以及反应堆的辐射安全性，是一个长期的重要科学技术问题。本研究以10mw高温气冷实验堆（HTR-10）为研究对象，测量了其一次冷却剂活性，这是反应堆辐射安全的关键指标，并评估了直接影响其固有安全特性的燃料元件性能。HTR-10是目前唯一可满负荷运行的球床模块化htr试验堆。建立了一种评估三结构各向同性包覆燃料颗粒（TRISO CFP）失效率和铀污染份额的方法。裂变气体核素的释放-生成比（R/B）为<；TRISO CFP失效分数为7.23 × 10−5，铀污染份额为9.20 × 10−6。HTR-10的TRISO CFP性能超过了世界上以往htr和辐照试验，突出了其优良的辐射安全性和HTR-PM（与HTR-10相关/基于HTR-10）大规模商业应用的潜力。

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来源期刊

Nuclear Engineering and Design 工程技术-核科学技术

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

11.80%

发文量

377

审稿时长

5 months

期刊介绍： Nuclear Engineering and Design covers the wide range of disciplines involved in the engineering, design, safety and construction of nuclear fission reactors. The Editors welcome papers both on applied and innovative aspects and developments in nuclear science and technology. Fundamentals of Reactor Design include: • Thermal-Hydraulics and Core Physics • Safety Analysis, Risk Assessment (PSA) • Structural and Mechanical Engineering • Materials Science • Fuel Behavior and Design • Structural Plant Design • Engineering of Reactor Components • Experiments Aspects beyond fundamentals of Reactor Design covered: • Accident Mitigation Measures • Reactor Control Systems • Licensing Issues • Safeguard Engineering • Economy of Plants • Reprocessing / Waste Disposal • Applications of Nuclear Energy • Maintenance • Decommissioning Papers on new reactor ideas and developments (Generation IV reactors) such as inherently safe modular HTRs, High Performance LWRs/HWRs and LMFBs/GFR will be considered; Actinide Burners, Accelerator Driven Systems, Energy Amplifiers and other special designs of power and research reactors and their applications are also encouraged.