Comparison of Neutronics Performance Characteristics of the Proposed NIST Reactor with Different LEU Fuels

Published

June 1, 2018

Author(s)

Danyal J Turkoglu, Zeyun Wu, Robert E. Williams, Thomas Henderson Newton

Abstract

A conceptual design of a new reactor with a horizontally-split core using low-enriched uranium silicide dispersion (U₃Si₂/Al) fuel has recently been studied as a potential replacement for the National Bureau of Standards Reactor (NBSR). In this paper, the low-enriched UMo fuels (monolithic U10Mo and U7Mo/Al dispersion) and U₃Si₂/Al fuel are compared with the objective of identifying the best fuel candidate for maximizing cold neutron production in this proposed new reactor. For the comparisons, fuel inventories for multi-cycle equilibrium cores were calculated for each fuel based on a 30 day reactor cycle at 20 MW power. With its very high U density, the potential to load more U in the core with U10Mo monolithic fuel was explored with test cases using an alternate fuel management scheme, a higher power level (30 MW), or a longer cycle (45 days).

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the PHYSOR 2018, Cancun, Mexico

Conference Dates

April 22-26, 2018

Conference Location

Cancun

Conference Title

PHYSOR 2018: Reactor Physics Paving the Way Towards more Efficient Systems

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Low-enriched uranium, Research reactor, Neutronics performance characteristics, cold neutrons

Citation

, D. , Wu, Z. , , R. and , T. (2018), Comparison of Neutronics Performance Characteristics of the Proposed NIST Reactor with Different LEU Fuels, Proceedings of the PHYSOR 2018, Cancun, Mexico, Cancun, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=925481 (Accessed October 7, 2025)