Simplified models for pebble-bed HTR core burn-up calculations with Monteburns2.0©

This paper aims at comparing some simplified models to simulate irradiation cycles of Pu fuelled pebble-bed reactors with Monteburns2.0© code. As a reference core, the PBMR-400 (proposed in the framework of the EU PUMA project, where this kind of core fuelled by a Pu and Pu–Np fuel has been studied) was taken into account.Pebble-bed High Temperature Reactor (HTR) cores consist of hundreds of thousands pebbles arranged stochastically in a cylindrical or annular space and each pebble is a single fuel element, and it is able to reach ultra-high burn-ups, i.e. up to 750 GWd/tHM (for Pu-based fuels). Additionally, pebble-bed cores are characterised by a continuous recirculation of pebbles from the top to the bottom of the core.Modelling accurately with current computer codes such an arrangement, in order to predict the behaviour of the core itself, is a very difficult task and any depletion code specifically devoted to pebble-bed burn-up calculation is not available at the moment. Because of limitations of the most common current MCNP-based depletion codes as well as huge calculation times, simplified models have to be implemented.After an analysis of the literature available on pebble-bed models for criticality and burn-up calculations, a preliminary assessment of the impact of different kind of simplified models for a Pu-Np fuelled Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), proposed in the framework of the EU PUMA project, is shown, particularly as far as burn-up prediction with Monteburns2.0© code is concerned.

► PBMR-400 annular core is very difficult to simulate in a reliable way.
► Nuclide evolutions given by different lattice models can differ significantly.
► To split fixed lattice models into two axial zones does not affect results significantly.
► We can choose a (simplified) core model on the basis of the analysis aim.
► Monteburns gives by survey burn-up calculations reasonable nuclide evolution trends.