Whole core analysis of Molten Salt Breeder Reactor

Abstract

The simulation of whole core depletion and continuous reprocessing of Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) has been performed. The MSBR model was built using MCNP6 and the depletion and reprocessing simulations were modelled using CINDER90 and PYTHON script. The PYTHON script was introduced to implement online reprocessing of molten-salt fuel and feeding of new fertile material with 3-day depletion intervals during the simulations. The simulation starts with the reference composition from the original ORNL MSBR design [3] and equilibrium compositions are searched through the depletion and reprocessing simulations for 1200 days. The MSBR whole core analysis was performed at the initial and equilibrium core conditions, for various reactor design parameters such as multiplication factors, neutron flux distributions, temperature coefficients, rod worths, and power distributions. The neutronic core characteristics was analyzed using four factor formula applied to the two zones of the core separately.