Analysis of SMART reactor core with uranium mononitride for prolonged fuel cycle using OpenMC

Abstract

The neutronics performance and safety characteristics of Uranium mononitride (UN) fuel for System-Integrated Modular Advanced Reactor (SMART) has been investigated to discern the potential for non-proliferation, waste, and accident tolerance benefits of UN fuel. The neutronic evaluation of UN fuel for SMART reactor has been carried out under normal operation using OpenMC and compared with Uranium dioxide (UO2) in terms of fuel cycle length, reactivity coefficients, Fuel depletion (burnup), thermal flux, and fission product activity. The power peaking factor (PPF) has been compared at the beginning of the fuel cycle (BOC), mid of the fuel cycle (MOC), and at the end of the fuel cycle (EOC). Results indicate that the UN fuel can be operated beyond the designed fuel cycle length of the SMART reactor, which induces the positive reactivity at the end of the fuel cycle of about 4625 pcm. However, the UO2 showed negative reactivity after three years. The total fission product activity at the end of the fuel cycle (3.5 years) for UO2 and UN has been founded 1.003 × 1020 Bq and 1.023 × 1020 Bq, respectively.