Fission Product Decay Heat Calculations for B C Reed 232 - Nuclear Materials Science: Nuclear Fuel, Neutron Fission of Th Part 1: Fuel and Cladding K Whittle

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IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

Fission Product Decay Heat Calculations for Neutron Fission of 232Th

P N Son and N X Hai Nuclear Research Institute, 01-Nguyen Tu Luc, Dalat, Vietnam

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Precise information on the decay heat from fission products following times after a fission reaction is necessary for safety designs and operations of nuclear-power reactors, fuel storage, transport flasks, and for spent fuel management and processing. In this study, the timing distributions of fission products' concentrations and their integrated decay heat as function of time following a fast neutron fission reaction of 232Th were exactly calculated by the numerical method with using the DHP code.

1. Introduction In a fission reaction, fission products (FP) are initially formed with known concentrations as independent fission yields, but this data still changes following times after the fission events. This is mainly because of the natural decay of radioactive fission products. In nuclear science and technology, the concentrations of fission products as functions of decay time are the key data required in aggregate decay heat calculations for designs and operations of nuclear-power reactors, fuel storage, transport flasks, and for spent fuel management and processing [1, 2]. Gamma and beta decay energies released from natural decay of the fission products contribute approximately 7% to 12% of the total energy generated through the fission process; this component of power is called “Decay Heat”. After a reactor is shutdown, this source of radioactive decay energy still remains and cumulatively increases that necessary to apply a heat removal system for maintaining the safety level of temperature inside the reactor core. In nuclear reactor technology, thorium is considering as a potential fuel material that could possibly supplement or even replace natural uranium [3]. 232Th is the naturally-occurring isotope with abundance of nearly 100%, and can be used as breeding-fuel material by capturing neutrons in a thermal and epithermal neutron flux to form 233Th isotope and subsequently decay to produce uranium-233 (233U), which is an excellent fissile material for nuclear energy production [4]. For fast reactors, in which thorium-232 is used as the breeding-fuel component that driven by a fast neutron spectrum, 232Th is also fissionable with incident neutrons with energy above one MeV; and the decay energies of its fission products would significantly contribute to the decay heat power in the spend fuel. Accordingly, the updated knowledge of timing distributions or behaviour of concentrations and decay heat energies by fission products from fission reaction of 232Th is essential necessary in research and application of fast reactor technology. In this work, the DHP program [5], a numerical calculation code, was used for calculation of fission products decay heat data for fast neutron fission of 232Th. The method used in this calculation is analysis procedure on the general solutions of the Bateman’s Equations [6] for every full complex decay chain, in which the real-time build-up and decay of FP nuclides are determined. Based on the

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005 decay and fission yield data from JENDL 4.0 [7], the concentration of each FP nuclide is determined as functions of cooling time after a fission event. The difficulties of the complex systems of the decay- chains are solved by an additional computational algorithm implemented in the DHP code.

2. Analysis of Decay and Build-up Numbers The number of ith nuclide at cooling time t after a fission burst can be calculated from the following equation:

M = λ +− i NtN i i ∑ →ij tNt )()exp()0()( ≠ij (1) th in which, Ni(0) is equal to the independent fission yield of the i nuclide; the component of Nj->i(t) is the build-up number of nuclide ith at cooling time t, that was formed in the system of decay chains originated from the nuclide jth. This term of the build-up number can be obtained by the general solutions of the Bateman’s equation for every particular linear decay chain. In this work, we developed a numerical algorithm to calculate the term of Nj→i(t) in equation (1) directly by using the decay and fission yield data from JENDL4.0 [7] and/or the evaluated nuclear structure data file ENSDF [8]. The calculation procedure is generalized as the following steps [9]: For every nuclide jth, the decay net that started from the nuclide jth is separated to form equivalent sub-branches of linear decay chains. For each linear decay chain, if the nuclide ith is a daughter nuclide in the decay chain, apply the general solution of Bateman’s equation to calculate the build up number of nuclide ith due to the decay of nuclide jth through the current linear decay chain, as of the cooling time t.

The total number Ni(t) can be obtained by summing all the build-up numbers of nuclide ith from all the linear decay chains in which the build-up numbers are calculated by apply the general solution of Bateman’s equation [6] for every liner decay branch in a differential period of time Δt. Let consider to a linear decay branch of n nuclides:

NNN→→→... N → ... N 123 in

The build-up number of nuclide Ni due to the decay of nuclide Ni-1 is calculated by the differential equation:

dN() t i =−λλ ii−−11Nt() ii Nt () dt (2)

In case of {Nj(t) ≠ 0 and all of the remain nuclides N1,2,...j-1,j+1,...i,....M(t) = 0 at t = 0}, the solution of build-up number for Ni(t) contributed from nuclide Nj at t > 0 is express as:

i −λ = mt N ji→ ()tCe∑ m mj= (3)

i−1 λ ∏ k = kj= CNmji .(0) λλ− ∏()km kj= km≠ (4)

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

In general case of {Nj(t) ≠ 0 ; j = 1, 2, 3, ... n at t = 0}, the total build-up number of time dependent Ni(t), at t > 0, contributed from all of other nuclides in a liner decay branch can be estimated as the following general expression.

⎛⎞ ⎜⎟ − −λ iii 1 ⎜⎟mt = e ∑∑Ntji→ ()∏ N l (0)⎜⎟ ∑i jl==1 kl= ⎜⎟ mlλλ− ∏()qm ⎜⎟ql= ⎝⎠qm≠ (5) A computational procedure for exact calculation of the time-dependent distribution of fission product concentration, Ni(t), has been developed and integrated in the DHP code. In this calculation, all of decay chains and decay modes including β- decay to ground state, first and second isomer states, double β- decay, electron capture decay to ground and isomer states, alpha decay, delay β- decay, and internal transitions in the fission product system are taken into consider in this calculation. The block diagram of the DHP computational algorithm and window interface are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, respectively. The results of calculation for timing concentration functions of several fission product nuclides for times after a fission reaction of 232Th are shown in Figure 1, in which decay characteristics for every fission product and the independent neutron fission yields were extracted from JENDL4.0 [7].

Figure 1. Calculated Results of concentration functions for a number selected fission products after a fast neutron fission reaction of 232Th

3. Beta Decay Average Energies Calculations The average energy values of beta and gamma-rays released from beta decay of individual fission product are the most important quantities for nuclear decay heat summation prediction. The expressions for average beta and gamma-ray energies based on the Gross theory of beta decay were applied in these calculations [10, 11].

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

+− 0 Eg 1 2 2 β = −+−− )()1()1()( dEdEEFEEpEEmcESTE 2/1 ∫∫β g g −Q 1 (6)

+− 0 Eg 1 2 2 γ = + −+− )()1()()( dEdEEFEEpEEQmcESTE 2/1 ∫∫β g g g −Q 1 (7) where: F(E) stands for the Fermi function. Eg is related to the excitation energy Ei as Eg = -(Ei -1); m, p and c denotes for electron rest mass, electron momentum and light velocity, respectively. The beta strength function Sβ(E) can be determined from the beta feeding function Iβ(E) as the following formula:

IEβ () SEβ ()= f (,ZQ− ET ). 1/2 (8) f(Z, Qβ-E) is the integrated Fermi function. Q, E and T1/2 are the beta decay energy, excitation energy in the daughter nuclide and the half-life, respectively. The function Iβ(E) can be systematically normalized based on the beta branching intensities adopted from the ENSDF data file, or experimentally derived from measured distributions of beta decay intensity. The calculated results of average beta and gamma energies from beta decay for several selected fission products are shown in Table 1.

Figure 2. The block diagram of the computational procedure.

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

Figure 3. The window interface of the DHP program.

Table 1. The calculated average beta and gamma energies for selected nuclide.

(a) (b) Nuclide Q (MeV) T1/2 (s) Eβ (MeV) Eγ (MeV) Eβ (MeV) Eγ (MeV) Rb-89 4.496 909.0 0.9970 2.2981 0.9303 2.2313 Rb-90 6.587 158.0 2.0512 1.9996 1.9060 2.2712 Rb-90m 6.696 265.0 1.4047 3.2281 1.0811 3.9332 Rb-91 5.891 58.4 1.6930 2.6675 1.3739 2.6876 Rb-93 7.462 5.84 2.5226 2.225 2.1544 2.5402 Sr-93 4.137 445.0 0.8197 2.2709 0.7860 2.1724 Sr-94 3.508 75.2 0.8388 1.4503 0.8309 1.4380 Sr-95 6.087 23.9 2.2151 1.1534 1.8928 1.7990 Y-94 4.917 1120 1.8072 0.7987 1.8111 0.7875 Y-95 4.453 618.0 1.4465 1.1285 1.3793 1.2471 Cs-138 5.374 2010.0 1.2428 2.3646 1.2223 2.4047 Cs-138m 5.457 916.0 0.2700 0.4122 0.2565 0.4211 Cs-139 4.213 556.0 1.6567 0.3406 1.6487 0.3451 Cs-140 6.22 63.7 1.9708 1.7946 1.8399 1.9520 Cs-141 5.251 24.9 2.0171 0.8087 1.5002 1.7041 Ba-141 3.213 1100 0.9224 0.8679 0.9125 0.9108 Ba-142 2.211 636 0.3740 1.0852 0.4032 1.0736 Ba-143 4.246 14.3 1.2924 1.207 1.1835 1.3595 Ba-144 3.119 11.5 0.9837 0.6239 0.9253 0.7921 Ba-145 4.923 4.31 1.4714 0.3368 1.2999 1.7954 La-142 4.503 5470.0 0.8682 2.2952 0.8184 2.4434 La-143 3.426 848.0 2.9339 0.3468 1.2238 0.4618 La-144 5.541 40.8 1.3639 2.3128 0.9867 3.0789 La-145 4.108 24.8 1.5014 0.6509 0.7752 2.1097 Ce-145 2.535 181.0 0.6366 0.8047 0.6268 0.8665 Ce-146 1.026 811.0 0.2543 0.3647 0.2164 0.3520 Ce-147 3.29 56.4 1.4929 0.2469 0.6905 1.4939 Ce-148 2.06 56.0 0.5635 0.3416 0.5908 0.4598 Pr-146 4.169 1450.0 1.3294 0.9969 1.2839 1.0685

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

Pr-147 2.686 804.0 0.7493 0.6836 0.6715 0.9207 Pr-148 4.932 136.0 1.6738 0.9697 1.3111 1.7841 Pr-148m 5.05 121.0 1.6659 0.9128 1.1289 2.2984 Pr-149 3.397 136.0 0.9161 1.0003 0.8588 1.3145 Pr-151 4.102 18.9 1.8861 1.5435 1.1181 1.3521 Nd-149 1.691 6220.0 0.5097 0.4342 0.4585 0.4109 Nd-151 2.442 746.0 0.5926 0.8546 0.5763 0.8939 Nd-153 3.336 32.0 1.1675 0.3636 1.1348 0.5452 Nd-154 2.735 25.9 0.8878 0.4842 0.8573 0.5466 Nd-155 4.222 8.9 1.5925 1.4987 1.0859 1.5365 Pm-152 3.505 246.0 1.3034 0.3387 1.2696 0.4149 Pm-153 1.881 324.0 0.6669 0.1311 0.6582 0.1329 Pm-154 4.044 104.0 0.8482 1.7520 0.8527 1.8657 Pm-155 3.224 48.0 2.7903 0.5935 1.0710 0.5639 Pm-156 5.155 61.9 1.3029 1.7765 1.2024 2.2048 Pm-157 4.514 27.69 1.4396 0.7605 1.5430 0.8389 Sm-157 2.734 482.0 0.908 0.5180 0.8549 0.5558 Sm-158 1.999 331.0 0.5167 0.5947 0.5155 0.5936 Eu-158 3.485 2750.0 0.8503 1.2892 0.8241 1.3656

(a): Calculated with Iβ(E) from ENSDF [8] (b): Calculation with Iβ(E) from experimental intensities [12]

The average energies shown in Table 1 are calculated in two cases: (a) calculated based on the input data of branching intensities extracted from the ENSDF data files; (b) calculated from the experimental beta decay intensities measured by Greenwood et al. [12] in which a total absorption gamma-rays spectrometer (TAGS) was used; TAGS is an efficient experimental method for average energies determinations, that overcome the problem of pandemonium effects [13].

4. Results of Calculations The summation model for decay heat calculations is as the following function:

M = λ f ()tENt∑ ii i () i=1 (9) where: M denotes the maximum number of FP nuclides; Ei = Eiβ + Eiγ stands for the mean energy per th decay of the i nuclide, λi the decay constant, Ni(t) the corresponding concentration function for cooling time f(t) is the burst function of decay heat (MeV/Fission/s). The physical quantity equal to t×f(t) is called decay heat power function (MeV/Fission). In this work, the JENDL FP Decay Data File 2011 [14] and fission yield data file from JENDL 4.0 [7] have been applied for calculations of fission product concentrations as functions of cooling time after fast neutron fission reactions of 232Th, and these results were adopted in decay heat calculations. The results of calculations for t×f(t), as functions of times after a fission event, are shown in Table 2 and Figure 4 in comparison with measured values by Akizama 1982 [15].

Table 2. Calculated fission product decay heat for times after fast neutron fission of 232Th Decay Heat t×f(t) Time after Decay Heat t×f(t) Time after (MeV/Fission) fission burst (s) (MeV/Fission) fission burst (s) Beta Gamma Total Beta Gamma Total 1.10E-01 0.1497 0.1191 0.2688 3.00E+02 0.4812 0.5834 1.0646 1.60E-01 0.2065 0.1641 0.3706 4.00E+02 0.4419 0.5208 0.9627 2.10E-01 0.2579 0.2048 0.4627 5.00E+02 0.4225 0.4908 0.9132 2.60E-01 0.3047 0.2418 0.5464 6.00E+02 0.4121 0.4760 0.8880 3.10E-01 0.3475 0.2755 0.6231 7.00E+02 0.4061 0.4684 0.8745 4.10E-01 0.4234 0.3352 0.7586 8.00E+02 0.4027 0.4646 0.8673

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005

5.10E-01 0.4886 0.3864 0.8750 9.00E+02 0.4008 0.4630 0.8638 6.10E-01 0.5455 0.4309 0.9764 1.00E+03 0.3998 0.4627 0.8625 7.10E-01 0.5956 0.4700 1.0656 1.50E+03 0.3983 0.4669 0.8652 8.10E-01 0.6401 0.5047 1.1448 2.00E+03 0.3922 0.4677 0.8599 9.10E-01 0.6799 0.5356 1.2156 2.50E+03 0.3811 0.4629 0.8440 1.01E+00 0.7158 0.5635 1.2792 3.00E+03 0.3679 0.4551 0.8230 1.51E+00 0.8509 0.6688 1.5196 4.00E+03 0.3430 0.4368 0.7797 2.01E+00 0.9377 0.7379 1.6757 5.00E+03 0.3234 0.4187 0.7421 2.51E+00 0.9954 0.7862 1.7816 6.00E+03 0.3091 0.4022 0.7112 3.01E+00 1.0342 0.8213 1.8554 7.00E+03 0.2987 0.3870 0.6857 4.01E+00 1.0772 0.8680 1.9452 8.00E+03 0.2912 0.3730 0.6642 5.01E+00 1.0938 0.8969 1.9907 9.00E+03 0.2857 0.3598 0.6455 6.01E+00 1.0967 0.9157 2.0124 1.00E+04 0.2814 0.3473 0.6287 7.01E+00 1.0922 0.9281 2.0203 1.50E+04 0.2678 0.2929 0.5607 8.01E+00 1.0838 0.9362 2.0200 2.00E+04 0.2565 0.2516 0.5081 9.01E+00 1.0734 0.9415 2.0148 2.50E+04 0.2446 0.2217 0.4662 1.00E+01 1.0620 0.9447 2.0067 3.00E+04 0.2321 0.1999 0.4320 1.50E+01 1.0061 0.9471 1.9532 4.00E+04 0.2064 0.1707 0.3771 2.00E+01 0.9604 0.9454 1.9058 5.00E+04 0.1815 0.1516 0.3331 2.50E+01 0.9265 0.9473 1.8737 6.00E+04 0.1593 0.1380 0.2972 3.00E+01 0.9025 0.9525 1.8550 7.00E+04 0.1406 0.1278 0.2684 4.00E+01 0.8726 0.9651 1.8377 8.00E+04 0.1255 0.1199 0.2454 5.00E+01 0.8515 0.9721 1.8236 9.00E+04 0.1135 0.1136 0.2270 6.00E+01 0.8308 0.9706 1.8013 1.00E+05 0.1039 0.1083 0.2122 7.00E+01 0.8085 0.9618 1.7702 1.50E+05 0.0767 0.0908 0.1675 8.00E+01 0.7850 0.9477 1.7327 2.00E+05 0.0641 0.0821 0.1461 9.00E+01 0.7612 0.9302 1.6914 2.50E+05 0.0573 0.0785 0.1359 1.00E+02 0.7377 0.9105 1.6482 3.00E+05 0.0539 0.0780 0.1320 1.50E+02 0.6363 0.8039 1.4402 4.00E+05 0.0520 0.0812 0.1332 2.00E+02 0.5643 0.7092 1.2735 5.00E+05 0.0528 0.0861 0.1388 2.50E+02 0.5149 0.6362 1.1511 6.00E+05 0.0544 0.0907 0.1451

Figure 4. Calculated fission product decay heat after fast neutron fission of 232Th

5. Conclusions In the present work, the computer code DHP has been improved for calculation procedure and updated for new available nuclear databases. Calculations have been carried out for the decay and growth distributions of concentrations for fission products from fast neutron fission of 232Th. The calculated data of fission product concentrations were then introduced into summation calculations of total and partial decay heat following times after fission burst. The decay and fission yield data used in this work is extracted from JENDL FP Decay Data File and fission yield data file 2011 [14]. As shown in Table 2 and Figures 4, within the decay time period from 1×102 s to 5×103 s, the present calculated

IWTCP-3 & NCTP-40 IOP Publishing Journal of Physics: Conference Series 726 (2016) 012005 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/726/1/012005 results are agreements with the experimental values measured by Akizama [15]. It is also estimated that the updated DHP code can be used for calculations of fission product inventory concentrations and decay heat data exactly.

Acknowledgments This research was partly funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number “103.04-2012.59”.

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