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Modeling physical security can help lower costs for nuclear power plants
Today’s nuclear power plants are the nation’s largest source of carbon-free energy, but they come with high operating and maintenance costs.
Competition from other sources, especially natural gas, coupled with low electricity prices, has resulted in the closure of some plants in the last decade due to economic reasons.
One way to alleviate these economic pressures is to reduce the cost of operating nuclear power plants, including the costs associated with physical security.
Susumu Iijima, Makoto Ōbu, Tamotsu Hayase, Akio Ohno, Tatsuo Nemoto, Shigeaki Okajima
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 100 | Number 4 | December 1988 | Pages 496-506
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23583
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Power distributions of the large-scale axially heterogeneous liquid-metal fast breeder reactor were studied by using the experiment results of fast critical assemblies XI, XII, and XIII and the results of their analyses. The power distributions were examined by the gamma-scanning method and fission rate measurements using 239Pu and 238U fission counters and the foil irradiation method. In addition to the measurements in the reference core, the power distributions were measured in the core with a control rod inserted and in a modified core where the shape of the internal blanket was determined by the radial boundary. The calculation was made by using JENDL-2 and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute’s standard calculation system for fast reactor neutronics. The power flattening trend, caused by the decrease of the fast neutron flux, was observed in the axial and radial power distributions. The effect of the radial boundary shape of the internal blanket on the power distribution was determined in the core. The thickness of the internal blanket was reduced at its radial boundary. The influence of the internal blanket was observed in the power distributions in the core with a control rod inserted. The calculation predicted the neutron spectrum harder in the internal blanket. In the radial distributions of 239Pu fission rates, the space dependency of the calculated-to-experiment values was found at the active core close to the internal blanket.