Preliminary Assessment of the Impact on Reactor Vessel dpa Rates Due to Installation of a Proposed Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Core in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR)

Daily, Charles R.¹ 

[1] Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

关键词: SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM;    ATOMIC DISPLACEMENTS;    HFIR REACTOR;    REACTOR VESSELS;    REACTOR CORES;    MONTE CARLO METHOD;    CONVERSION;    M CODES;    DESIGN;    NEUTRON TRANSPORT;    EVALUATION;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1237599
RP-ID  :  ORNL/SPR--2015/263
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1237599
Others  :  Other: NN9100000
Others  :  MDGA518
Others  :  TRN: US1600527

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来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

An assessment of the impact on the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) reactor vessel (RV) displacements-per-atom (dpa) rates due to operations with the proposed low enriched uranium (LEU) core described by Ilas and Primm has been performed and is presented herein. The analyses documented herein support the conclusion that conversion of HFIR to low-enriched uranium (LEU) core operations using the LEU core design of Ilas and Primm will have no negative impact on HFIR RV dpa rates. Since its inception, HFIR has been operated with highly enriched uranium (HEU) cores. As part of an effort sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), conversion to LEU cores is being considered for future HFIR operations. The HFIR LEU configurations analyzed are consistent with the LEU core models used by Ilas and Primm and the HEU balance-of-plant models used by Risner and Blakeman in the latest analyses performed to support the HFIR materials surveillance program. The Risner and Blakeman analyses, as well as the studies documented herein, are the first to apply the hybrid transport methods available in the Automated Variance reduction Generator (ADVANTG) code to HFIR RV dpa rate calculations. These calculations have been performed on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Institutional Cluster (OIC) with version 1.60 of the Monte Carlo N-Particle 5 (MCNP5) computer code.