EVALUATION OF NEUTRON SHIELDING PERFORMANCE OF CD-SS 316L AS A CANDIDATE ALLOY FOR DRY CASK OF RESEARCH REACTOR SPENT FUEL

Abstract

Development of dry casks is necessary to support national strategy for the management of spent fuels. One of the requirements for the dry cask is shielding performance for neutrons emitted by the spent fuels. The objectives of this study were to determine the emitted neutrons by the spent fuels generated from GAS research reactor and to evaluate the neutron shielding performance of Cd-SS316L alloy as a candidate material to be used for dry cask for the spent fuels.  The determination of the emitted neutrons was carried out using Origen 2.1 software while the evaluation of the neutron shielding performance was done using MCNP5. The result shows that the emitted neutrons by a spent fuel after 5 years discharged from GAS research reactor are 2.81×10³ and 3.32×10⁶ n/s for reactor core power of 15 and 30 MW, respectively. Addition of Cd improves the neutron shielding performance of SS 316L. It can be concluded that evaluation of neutron shielding performance of Cd-SS316L can be done using Origen 2.1 software for the neutron emission determination and MNCP 5 software for the neutron shielding performance by simulation. This study shows that the Cd-SS 316L alloy is worth further study to develop the dry cask design for the GAS research reactor