A neutronic and thermal hydraulic analysis of the 1-MW TRIGA research reactor
at the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center using a new low enriched uranium
fuel (named 30/20 fuel) was completed. This analysis provides safety assessment for the
change out of the existing high enriched uranium fuel to this high-burnup, low enriched
uranium fuel design. The codes MCNP and Monteburns were utilized for the neutronic
analysis while the code PARET was used to determine fuel and cladding temperatures.
All of these simulations used improved zirconium hydride cross sections that were
provided by Dr. Ayman Hawari at North Carolina State University. The neutronic and
thermal analysis showed that the reactor will operate with approximately the same fuel
lifetime as the current high enriched uranium fuel and stay within the thermal and safety
limits for the facility. It was also determined that the control rod worths and the
temperature coefficient of reactivity would provide sufficient negative reactivity to
control the reactor during the fuelâÂÂs complete lifetime.
An assessment of the fuelâÂÂs viability for use with the Advanced Fuel Cycle
InitiativeâÂÂs Reactor Accelerator Coupling Experiments program was also performed.
The objective of this study was to confirm the continued viability of these experiments with the reactor operating using this new fuel. For these experiments, the accelerator
driven system must produce fission heating in excess of 1 kW when driven by a 20 kW
accelerator system. This criterion was met using the new fuel. Therefore the change out
of the fuel will not affect the viability of these experiments.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4347 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Candalino, Robert Wilcox |
| Contributors | Charlton, William |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 1578971 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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