Sustainability of thorium fuel in a Pebble-Bed Fluoride salt-cooled High temperature Reactor (PB-FHR) is investigated to find the feasible region of high discharge burnup and negative Flibe (2LiF-BeF2) salt Temperature Reactivity Coefficient (TRC). | Sustainability of thorium-uranium in pebble-bed fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 2 8 2016 Nuclear Sciences G. Zhu et al. published by EDP Sciences 2016 amp Technologies DOI epjn e2015-50032-6 Available online at http REGULAR ARTICLE Sustainability of thorium-uranium in pebble-bed fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor Guifeng Zhu1 3 Yang Zou1 2 and Hongjie Xu1 2 1 Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Jialuo Road 2019 Jiading District 201800 Shanghai . China 2 Key Laboratory of Nuclear Radiation and Nuclear Energy Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Jialuo Road 2019 Jiading District Shanghai . China 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Beijing . China Received 11 May 2015 Received in final form 25 October 2015 Accepted 18 December 2015 Published online 7 March 2016 Abstract. Sustainability of thorium fuel in a Pebble-Bed Fluoride salt-cooled High temperature Reactor PB- FHR is investigated to find the feasible region of high discharge burnup and negative Flibe 2LiF-BeF2 salt Temperature Reactivity Coefficient TRC . Dispersion fuel or pellet fuel with SiC cladding and SiC matrix is used to replace the tristructural-isotropic TRISO coated particle system for increasing fuel loading and decreasing excessive moderation. To analyze the neutronic characteristics an equilibrium calculation method of thorium fuel self-sustainability is developed. We have compared two refueling schemes mixing flow pattern and directional flow pattern and two kinds of reflector materials SiC and graphite . This method found that the feasible region of breeding and negative Flibe TRC is between 20 vol and 62 vol fuel loading in the fuel. A discharge burnup could be achieved up to about 200 MWd kgHM. The case with directional flow pattern and SiC reflector showed superior burnup characteristics but the worst radial power peak factor while the case with mixing flow .
