RADIONUCLIDE CHARACTERISTICS OF RDE SPENT FUELS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17146/tdm.2018.20.2.4101Keywords:
RDE, spent fuel, radionuclide activity, thermal power, neutron production, photon releaseratesAbstract
Reaktor Daya Eksperimental (RDE) is a 10 MWth pebble-bed High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor that is planned to be constructed by National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) in Puspiptek complex, Tangerang Selatan. RDE utilizes low enriched UO2 fuel coated by TRISO layers and loaded into the core by means of multipass loading scheme. Determination of radionuclide characteristics of RDE spent fuel; such as activity, thermal power, neutron and photon release rates; are very important because those characteristics are crucial to be used as a base for evaluating the safety of spent fuel handling system and storage tank. This study is aimed to investigate the radionuclide characteristics of RDE spent fuel at the end of cycle and during the first 5 years cooling time in spent fuel storage. The method used to investigate the radionuclide characteristics is burnup calculation using ORIGEN2.1 code. In performing the ORIGEN2.1 calculation, one pebble fuel was assumed to be irradiated in the core for 5 cycles and then decayed for 5 years. At the end of the fifth cycle, it is obtained that the total activity, thermal power, neutron production, and photon release rates from all radionuclides inside one spent fuel are approximately 105.68 curies, 0.41 watts, 2.65 x 103 neutrons/second, and 1.79 x 104 photons/second, respectively. The results for the radionuclides characteristics during the first 5 years cooling time in the spent fuel storage show that the radioactivity characteristics from all radionuclides are rapidly decreasing at the first year and then slowly decreasing at the second until the fifth year of cooling time. The results obtained in this study can provide data for safety evaluation of fuel handling and spent fuel storage, such as the calculation of sourceterm, radiation dose rate, and the determination of radiation shielding.
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