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    Homework 1 (Solution)

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    Suleyman Qayum
    This document summarizes the results of several CASMO simulations analyzing the impact of fuel pin pitch and coolant density on reactivity. It shows that: - Increasing the moderator-to-fuel ratio initially increases reactivity up to an optimal point, then decreases it as too much moderator is added. - The standard fuel pin pitch of 1.285 cm operates in an under-moderated condition, improving safety during accidents. - Decreasing coolant density, as would occur if the water vaporized during an accident, consistently leads to lower reactivity across different pin pitches. This negative coolant void reactivity effect improves safety.

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    Homework 1 (Solution)

    Uploaded by

    Suleyman Qayum
    93 views8 pages
    This document summarizes the results of several CASMO simulations analyzing the impact of fuel pin pitch and coolant density on reactivity. It shows that: - Increasing the moderator-to-fuel ratio initially increases reactivity up to an optimal point, then decreases it as too much moderator is added. - The standard fuel pin pitch of 1.285 cm operates in an under-moderated condition, improving safety during accidents. - Decreasing coolant density, as would occur if the water vaporized during an accident, consistently leads to lower reactivity across different pin pitches. This negative coolant void reactivity effect improves safety.

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    Examples covering basic CASMO input decks.

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    Homework 1 [Solution]

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    This document summarizes the results of several CASMO simulations analyzing the impact of fuel pin pitch and coolant density on reactivity. It shows that: - Increasing the moderator-to-fuel ratio initially increases reactivity up to an optimal point, then decreases it as too much moderator is added. - The standard fuel pin pitch of 1.285 cm operates in an under-moderated condition, improving safety during accidents. - Decreasing coolant density, as would occur if the water vaporized during an accident, consistently leads to lower reactivity across different pin pitches. This negative coolant void reactivity effect improves safety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    93 views8 pages

    Homework 1 (Solution)

    Uploaded by

    Suleyman Qayum
    This document summarizes the results of several CASMO simulations analyzing the impact of fuel pin pitch and coolant density on reactivity. It shows that: - Increasing the moderator-to-fuel ratio initially increases reactivity up to an optimal point, then decreases it as too much moderator is added. - The standard fuel pin pitch of 1.285 cm operates in an under-moderated condition, improving safety during accidents. - Decreasing coolant density, as would occur if the water vaporized during an accident, consistently leads to lower reactivity across different pin pitches. This negative coolant void reactivity effect improves safety.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 8

    NUEN 418-500

    Fuel Assembly and 3D Core Design

    Assignment #1

    Suleyman Qayum

    September 9th, 2019


    Exercise 1

    A CASMO single pin cell input with the following specifications was created:
    • UO2 fuel enriched to 4w% in U-235 with density 10.50 g/cc
    • Fuel radius 0.41275 cm;
    • Clad radius 0.4851 cm;
    • State point conditions: TFU = 800, TMO = 577, PRE = 155.132, BOR = 0)
    • Fuel pin pitch 1.285 cm;
    The resulting kinf for the cell was found. A second run with thermal expansion of the
    geometry turned off was performed and the resulting kinf was found.

    1. The resulting values of kinf are shown below:


    With Thermal Expansion Without Thermal Expansion
    kinf 1.360861 1.360619

    The results in Table 1 indicate that kinf decreased slightly when the thermal
    expansion of the fuel was not accounted for by Casmo. According to the four-factor
    formula, the infinite multiplication factor of a fissioning system depends on the fast
    fission factor, thermal utilization factor, resonance escape probability, and
    reproduction factor. Thermal expansion of the fuel will not affect the system’s
    thermal utilization factor because, assuming no fuel burnup took place, because the
    relative amounts of fuel and cladding did not change. It follows that the likelihood of
    a thermal neutron being absorbed in the fuel was unaffected. Since the number of
    neutrons produced per neutron absorbed in fuel depends only on the composition of
    the fuel, the reproduction factor also remained constant. Furthermore, since the
    amount, density, and type of moderator in the cell was unchanged between the two
    runs, the likelihood of a fast neutron being thermalized before being captured did
    not change. Therefore, allowing for thermal expansion of the fuel does not affect the
    resonance escape probability. However, allowing for thermal expansion implies that
    the effective volume of fuel that a neutron will have to traverse before reaching the
    moderator will increase. Therefore, it is more likely to undergo fast fission in the
    fuel before it can be moderated thus increasing the fast fission factor. Since the fast
    fission factor increases with thermal expansion, while the other three terms of the
    four-factor formula remain the same, the infinite multiplication factor increases as a
    result.
    2. Input decks and batch files are shown below:
    Exercise 2

    Create a CASMO single pin cell input with the following specifications: • UO2 fuel enriched
    to 4w% in U-235 with density 10.50 g/cc
    • Fuel radius 0.41275 cm;
    • Clad radius 0.4851 cm;
    • State point conditions: TFU = 800, TMO = 577, PRE = 155.132, BOR = 0)
    • Fuel pin pitch 1.285 cm;
    The value of the fuel pin pitch was varied between 1.00 cm and to 3.00 cm in increments of
    0.05 cm, including an additional pitch value of 1.285 cm for ANO cycle 1.

    1. The relationship between kinf and the moderator-to-fuel ratio is shown graphically
    below:
    2. The data corresponding to the figure in part 1 is shown below:

    Fuel Volume Moderator Volume


    Pin Pitch (cm) Kinf [cm3] [cm3] Vmod / Vfuel
    1.0000 1.05459 0.53508 0.26071 0.48724
    1.0500 1.13856 0.53508 0.36321 0.67880
    1.1000 1.20599 0.53508 0.47071 0.87971
    1.1500 1.25984 0.53508 0.58321 1.08996
    1.2000 1.30424 0.53508 0.70071 1.30955
    1.2500 1.33948 0.53508 0.82321 1.53849
    1.2850 1.36086 0.53508 0.91194 1.70430
    1.3000 1.36914 0.53508 0.95071 1.77677
    1.3500 1.39252 0.53508 1.08321 2.02440
    1.4000 1.41133 0.53508 1.22071 2.28137
    1.4500 1.42638 0.53508 1.36321 2.54768
    1.5000 1.43803 0.53508 1.51071 2.82334
    1.5500 1.44699 0.53508 1.66321 3.10835
    1.6000 1.45301 0.53508 1.82071 3.40269
    1.6500 1.45689 0.53508 1.98321 3.70639
    1.7000 1.45878 0.53508 2.15071 4.01942
    1.7500 1.45917 0.53508 2.32321 4.34181
    1.8000 1.45801 0.53508 2.50071 4.67353
    1.8500 1.4553 0.53508 2.68321 5.01460
    1.9000 1.45158 0.53508 2.87071 5.36502
    1.9500 1.44671 0.53508 3.06321 5.72478
    2.0000 1.44085 0.53508 3.26071 6.09388
    2.0500 1.43422 0.53508 3.46321 6.47233
    2.1000 1.42675 0.53508 3.67071 6.86012
    2.1500 1.41857 0.53508 3.88321 7.25726
    2.2000 1.40984 0.53508 4.10071 7.66374
    2.2500 1.40045 0.53508 4.32321 8.07956
    2.3000 1.39066 0.53508 4.55071 8.50473
    2.3500 1.38034 0.53508 4.78321 8.93925
    2.4000 1.36967 0.53508 5.02071 9.38311
    2.4500 1.35868 0.53508 5.26321 9.83631
    2.5000 1.34731 0.53508 5.51071 10.29886
    2.5500 1.33574 0.53508 5.76321 10.77075
    2.6000 1.32392 0.53508 6.02071 11.25199
    2.6500 1.31188 0.53508 6.28321 11.74257
    2.7000 1.29907 0.53508 6.55071 12.24249
    2.7500 1.28736 0.53508 6.82321 12.75176
    2.8000 1.27485 0.53508 7.10071 13.27038
    2.8500 1.26223 0.53508 7.38321 13.79833
    2.9000 1.24961 0.53508 7.67071 14.33564
    2.9500 1.23687 0.53508 7.96321 14.88228
    3.0000 1.22413 0.53508 8.26071 15.43828
    3. With respect to the figure in part 1, if one starts from a very under-moderated
    reactor (moderator-to-fuel ratios near 0) and increases the ratio of moderator to fuel,
    the infinite multiplication factor increases sharply. This corresponds to the
    resonance escape probability increasing dramatically as a result of the moderators
    influence on the system; neutrons become more likely to thermalize before being
    captured. This in turn increases the likelihood of thermal fission in the cell since
    neutrons are now more likely to have been thermalized before being absorbed in the
    fuel. The maximum neutron multiplication in the cell occurs at a moderator-to-fuel
    ratio between 4 and 5. This corresponds to the optimum configuration of fuel and
    moderator with respect to neutron multiplication, If one continues increasing the
    moderator-to-fuel ratio past this optimal value, there is a steady decline in neutron
    multiplication. This occurs because the volume fraction of fuel in the cell is now too
    small and the likelihood of a neutron being absorbed in the moderator becomes
    increasingly significant.

    4. Regarding the standard value of 1.2850 cm for the fuel pitch, the reactor operates in
    a region of under-moderation. This is to be expected as it provides an inherently safe
    system with respect to accidents involving sudden loss of coolant (and moderator in
    LWR’s). With respect to the figure in part 1, any loss of moderator in an under-
    moderated reactor will lead to a sharp decline in neutron multiplication.

    5. The moderator-to-fuel ratio is not the optimum choice of parameter for a typical
    LWR fuel. It does not take into consideration the need for a decrease in neutron
    multiplication in the event of sudden loss of coolant, that is, it does not factor in
    safety considerations. The coolant void reactivity coefficient would be a more
    suitable parameter as it describes the reactivity response to a loss of coolant.
    Exercise 3

    The input file from Exercise 2 was run for two pin pitch values: 1.285 cm and 2.1 cm.
    In addition, the coolant density was varied from 0.2 g/cc to 1.0 g/cc in increments of
    0.1 g/cc. Two extra runs with a nominal density corresponding to 304 C @ 155b were
    also performed.

    1. The relationship between kinf and the coolant density for the pin pitch values of
    1.285 cm and 2.100 cm is shown graphically below:
    2. The data corresponding to the figure in part 1 is shown below:

    3. Refer to the figure in Part 1 for the locations of the nominal density.

    4. If an accident occurred in an LWR where the water vaporized, it would result in


    a decrease in coolant (and moderator) density. According to the plot above, a
    decrease in moderator density will always lead to a decrease in the neutron
    multiplication, making the pitch value of 1.285 cm an inherently safer design in
    comparison to a pitch of 2.100 cm. The formation of steam in the coolant affects
    resonance escape probability and, if the coolant void coefficient of reactivity is
    negative, will lead to a decrease in neutron multiplication.

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