The Effect of Adding Minor Actinide Fuel Rods on GFR Reactor in Radiopharmaceutical Waste Production Using OpenMC Program

Abstract

GFR is a generation IV reactor based on helium gas refrigeration capable of working at very high temperatures. The fast spectrum in this reactor makes it possible to use nitride-based fuel, namely Uranium Plutonium Nitride (UN-PuN). Adding minor actinide (MA) material to the primary fuel, UN-PuN can maximize reactor performance to near critical from the beginning to the end of burn-up. This study aims to analyze the effect of adding MA fuel rods to the heterogeneous core of 5 fuel variations (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5) on the probability of radiopharmaceutical waste production. The method in this research is to place MA fuel rods in this study using four designs based on the highest neutron flux value in one fuel assembly. The results of the neutron flux calculation show that the reactor’s active core’s central region (F1, F2, F3) needs to be added to MA fuel rods so that the resulting flux is more evenly distributed. The calculation of reactor criticality shows that Np fuel rod design 4 and Am fuel rod design 1 have the best keff value (keff ≈ 1) among other designs. The burn-up of MA fuel rods produces a minimal probability of producing Tc99m, Sr89, Y90, Rh105, Ag111, I231, and Sm15 radiopharmaceutical waste, even less than 1 kg.