An Integral Metallic-Fueled and Lead-Cooled Reactor Concept for the 4^th Generation Reactor

Abstract

An Integral Lead Reactor (ILR) concept is proposed for the 4th generation reactor to be used in the future. The ILR is loaded with metallic fuel and cooled by lead. It was evaluated in the 300-1500 MWe power range with the Japanese Fast Set 2 cross sections library. This set was tested against several fast benchmarks and the criticality uncertainty was found to be 0.51 %∆k. The reactor is started with U-Zr and changes to the U-TRU-Zr-RE fuel in a stepwise way. In the equilibrium cycle, the burnup reactivity is less than β_eff for a core of the order of 300 MWe, pin diameter of 10.4 mm and a pin-pitch to diameter ratio of 1.308. The lead void reactivity is negative for reactor power less than 750 MWe. There is a need to improve the nuclear data for the major actinides.

Keywords:

• integral lead rector
• burnup reactivity
• lead void reactivity
• equilibrium cycle
• liquid metal reactor
• metallic fuel
• lead coolant