Calculation of fuel burnup and radionuclide inventory in the 10 MW MTR type research reactor using the GETERA code

Abstract

Efforts have been made recently to study the possibility of core conversion of the 10 MW MTR type research reactor from the HEU to LEU fuels due to the proliferation issue. Since the inventory of the reactor core is a required parameter to study the atmospheric dispersion calculation for a postulated accidental airborne radionuclide release from the reactor, the inventory of the radioactive nuclides accumulated in the UAlx-Al fuels: HEU (93% 235U), MEU (45% 235U) and LEU (20% 235U) after 200 days of the reactor operating time was calculated using the GETERA code. The result showed, after 200 days of the reactor operation time (35% burnup), that the total consumptions of 235U and 238U for the HEU, MEU and LEU fuels were: 2360, 2334 and 2320 g for the 235U and 13, 105 and 238 g for the 238U, respectively. The amounts of 239Pu produced in the core were: 67.07, 157.86 g for the MEU and LEU fuels, respectively, compared with 7.95 g. The total core radioactivity after 200 days for the MEU and LEU cores were: 8.84 × 1016 and 9.31 × 1016 Bq, respectively, compared with 8.63 × 1016 Bq for the HEU core.