An important goal of nuclear reactor instrumentation is the continuous monitoring of the state of the reactor and the detection of deviations from the normal behaviour at an early stage. Early detection of anomalies enables one to make the necessary steps in order to prevent further damage of nuclear fuel. In the present paper, an on-line core monitoring system is described by means of which bo...

This paper reviews the rationale of selecting an enrichment of just less than 20% (low-enriched uranium) as the preferred enrichment level for research reactor fuel in order to minimize overall proliferation risks. The net strategic value of the nuclear material associated with reactor operation is evaluated for a variety of enrichment levels, ranging from slightly enriched to weapongrade fuel....

TRISO fuel particles, used in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR) are composite structures with a nuclear fuel kernel surrounded by alternating layers designed to contain fission products and compensate for radiation damage. As shown in Figure 1, a typical fuel particle contains an inner kernel of nuclear fuel, a low-density buffer layer of pyrocarbon, a dense layer of pyrocarbon coatin...

Nuclear reactor modeling has been shifting, over the last decades, towards full-core multiphysics analysis due to ever-increasing safety requirements and complexity of designs innovative systems. This is particularly true for liquid-fuel concepts such as Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR), given their strong intrinsic coupling between thermal-hydraulics, neutronics fuel chemistry. In MSFR, fission...

Our previous studies on water cooled thorium breeder reactor based on matured pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant technology concluded that reduced moderated core by arranging fuel pins in a triangular tight lattice array and using heavy water as coolant is appropriate for achieving better breeding performance and higher burn-up simultaneously [1–6]. One optimum core that produces 3.5 GW ther...

Fast reactor fuel cycle (FRFC) is regaining importance because of its vital role in the long term development of nuclear power. The safety issues associated with the fast reactors are now well understood and newer designs can address those from the lessons learned in the past. The same cannot be ascertained about their safeguards issues. Primary reason being the presence of special nuclear mate...

For either nuclear fusion or generation IV fission reactors to be viable as a commercial energy source the decommissioning and waste disposal solutions must considered during design. A multi-step simulation process combining Monte Carlo Neutron Transport simulations with inventory have been performed estimate activation of steels in key reactor components European Sodium-cooled fast Reactor (ES...

The presented work is motivated by a French law regarding nuclear waste management. A new conceptual Accelerator Driven System (ADS) designed for the Minor Actinides (MA) transmutation has been assessed by numerical simulation. The MUltiple Spallation Target (MUST) ADS combines high thermal power (up to 1.4 GWth) and high specific power. A 30 mA and 1 GeV proton beam is divided into three secon...

Sensitivity analysis studies the effect of a change in given parameter to response function system under investigation. In reactor physics, this usually translates into study how cross sections and fission spectrum modifications affect value multiplication factor, delayed neutron fraction or void coefficient for example. Generalized Perturbation Theory provides useful tool assessment adjoint we...

Heat conduction [1] is usually modeled as a diffusion process embodied in heat conduction equation. The traditional numerical methods [2, 3] for heat conduction problems such as the finite difference or finite element are well developed. However, these methods are based on discretized mesh systems, thus they are inherently limited in the geometry treatment. This chapter describes the Monte Carl...