Neutronics Analyses Of Dispersion Fuels For Core Conversion Of Nirr-1

The modification of Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) facilities from 90%HEU cores to below 20% LEU systems as part of the on-going worldwide effort ofconverting Research Reactors from highly enriched uranium (HEU) cores to lowenriched uranium (LEU) cores under the auspices of Reduced Enrichment for Researchand Test Reactors (RERTR) program. In this work, neutronics feasibility studies ofthree dispersion fuels have been performed using the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport(MCNP) code to determine their suitability for the conversion of Nigeria ResearchReactor-1 (NIRR-1) from HEU (>90%) to LEU (<20%) fuel. The potential LEUdispersion fuels investigated in this work include U3Si, U3Si2, and U9Mo, each enrichedto 19.75%. The following reactor core physics parameters were computed for the LEUfuel options; clean cold core excess reactivity (rex), control rod (CR) worth, shut downmargin (SDM), neutron flux distributions in the irradiation channels and kinetics data(i.e. effective delayed neutron fraction, βeff and prompt neutron lifetime, lf ). Results arecompared with experimental and calculated data of the current HEU core and indicatethat it would be feasible to use any of the LEU fuel options for the conversion ofcommercial MNSR in general and NIRR-1 in particular from HEU to LEU.

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