Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Development of a Secondary SCRAM System for Fast Reactors and ADS Systems. / Vanmaercke, Simon; Van den Eynde, Gert; Tijskens, Engelbert; Bartosiewicz, Yann; Scheveneels, Guy (Peer reviewer); Aït Abderrahim, Hamid (Peer reviewer).
In: Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations, Vol. 2012, 02.2012, p. 1-9.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a Secondary SCRAM System for Fast Reactors and ADS Systems
AU - Vanmaercke, Simon
AU - Van den Eynde, Gert
AU - Tijskens, Engelbert
AU - Bartosiewicz, Yann
A2 - Scheveneels, Guy
A2 - Aït Abderrahim, Hamid
N1 - Score = 10
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - One important safety aspect of any reactor is the ability to shutdown the reactor. A shutdown in an ADS can be done by stopping the accelerator or by lowering the multiplication factor of the reactor and thus by inserting negative reactivity. In current designs of liquid-metal-cooled GEN IV and ADS reactors reactivity insertion is based on absorber rods. Although these rod-based systems are duplicated to provide redundancy, they all have a common failure mode as a consequence of their identical operating mechanism, possible causes being a largely deformed core or blockage of the rod guidance channel. In this paper an overview of existing solutions for a complementary shut down system is given and a new concept is proposed. A tube is divided into two sections by means of aluminum seal. In the upper region, above the active core, spherical neutron-absorbing boron carbide particles are placed. In case of overpower and loss of coolant transients, the seal will melt. The absorber balls are then no longer supported and fall down into the active core region inserting a large negative reactivity. This system, which is not rod based, is under investigation, and its feasibility is verified both by experiments and simulations.
AB - One important safety aspect of any reactor is the ability to shutdown the reactor. A shutdown in an ADS can be done by stopping the accelerator or by lowering the multiplication factor of the reactor and thus by inserting negative reactivity. In current designs of liquid-metal-cooled GEN IV and ADS reactors reactivity insertion is based on absorber rods. Although these rod-based systems are duplicated to provide redundancy, they all have a common failure mode as a consequence of their identical operating mechanism, possible causes being a largely deformed core or blockage of the rod guidance channel. In this paper an overview of existing solutions for a complementary shut down system is given and a new concept is proposed. A tube is divided into two sections by means of aluminum seal. In the upper region, above the active core, spherical neutron-absorbing boron carbide particles are placed. In case of overpower and loss of coolant transients, the seal will melt. The absorber balls are then no longer supported and fall down into the active core region inserting a large negative reactivity. This system, which is not rod based, is under investigation, and its feasibility is verified both by experiments and simulations.
KW - SCRAM
KW - Absorber particles
KW - MYRRHA
UR - http://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/ezp_124888
UR - http://knowledgecentre.sckcen.be/so2/bibref/9607
U2 - 10.1155/2012/351985
DO - 10.1155/2012/351985
M3 - Article
VL - 2012
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations
JF - Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations
SN - 1687-6075
ER -
ID: 342581