Assessment of Reactor Physics Characteristics of Prismatic Fuel Concepts With a Hydrogen-Based Moderator for Use in a Fluoride Salt-Cooled Small Modular Reactor

Abstract

Fluoride-salt-cooled high temperature reactor (FHR) effectively combines the solid fuel and moderator design of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology with the fluoride salt coolant (LiF-BeF2, FLiBe) of molten salt reactor (MSR) technology, enabling low-pressure (∼1 atm, 101.325 kPa), and high-temperature (∼700 °C) operations. The design and operational features of the FHR make it a potentially attractive option for a small modular reactor (SMR), provided that it can be modified and made physically small and operate at a low-enough power level (<350 MWth/<150 MWel). Most FHR-SMR designs use high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel in the form of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles, combined with the use of a graphite moderator. However, there are alternative design concepts for an FHR-SMR that may offer superior performance characteristics, while utilizing an alternative fissile fuel supply option. In this exploratory study, lattice physics calculations were performed with Serpent to evaluate an alternative FHR-SMR prismatic fuel block design concept using coated annular fuel pellets instead of TRISO-particle fuel compacts, along with the use of hydrogen-based solid moderator rods made of 7LiH. In initial studies, it was found that fuel blocks with 120 moderator rods made of 7LiH tended to have large positive temperature reactivity coefficients (TRCs), which is undesirable for safety reasons. However, reducing the number of moderator rods to 90 or 54, while increasing the number of fuel rods and coolant holes led to low or negative temperature coefficients. For a prismatic fuel block design with 54-7LiH moderator rods, the isothermal temperature coefficient of reactivity (Isothermal TRC), with simultaneous changes in the fuel (F), graphite (G), hydrogen (H), and coolant (C) temperatures, ranges between −0.159 mk/K and −0.054 mk/K, depending on the operating temperature and fuel burnup. Such alternative FHR-SMR fuels could achieve a single-batch core life of ∼10 years with low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, and ∼45 years with HALEU, in a 350-MWth reactor core.