Azizul Khakim, Topan Setiadipura, Helen Raflis, Suharyana Suharyana, Rida Siti Nur’aini Mahmudah
Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) is one of the Generation IV nuclear reactors which is projected to be built in Indonesia. The reactor is fueled with molten salt also serving as the primary coolant. The reactor system has unique fuel management where it continuously feeds the fuel and removes some of the fission products while the reactor is operating. The so-called "feed and bleed" fuel management enables the core to have nearly zero excess reactivity with high neutron economy, as the fission product neutron poisons, e.g. Xe-135, are removed from the core. Due to efficient fuel utilization, the core produces much less spent radioactive fuel as compared to LWR. In addition, removing gaseous fission products significantly reduces the source term in case of a severe accident. Most of the current depletion codes do not have a feature enabling the "feed and bleed" fuel management, which at the same time updates the core neutron spectrum. Hence, the software is being developed without modifying the source of the depletion code, such as the MCNP code. The software enables the current depletion codes to perform feeding, bleeding, and updating the fuel composition at requested user time steps. It runs the input file, extracts the requested isotopes from the output file, creates a new input file with new fuel composition, and runs the new input file. This cycling process runs as many requested number of time steps. The purpose of the research is to develop software that meets the need for online continuous feed and bleed fuel management of MSR without too much intervention by the user. The software is written using Python programming language. © 2024 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
Research Center for Nuclear Reactor Technology (PRTRN), Research Organization for Nuclear Energy (ORTN), National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Building 80th Science and Technology Research Center (PUSPIPTEK), Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten, 15314, Indonesia; BAPETEN, Jl. Gajah Mada No.8, Jakarta, 10120, Indonesia; Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University, Jl Ir. Sutami 36A Kentingan Jebres, Surakarta, 57126, Indonesia; Department of Physics Education, Yogyakarta State University, Jl. Colombo No. 1, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia
