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Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management

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Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2010 Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management Jack Douglas Galloway [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Nuclear Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Galloway, Jack Douglas, "Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/798 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Jack Douglas Galloway entitled "Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Nuclear Engineering. G. Ivan Maldonado, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Kevin T. Clarno, Lee L. Riedinger, Arthur E. Ruggles Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Jack Douglas Galloway entitled “Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Nuclear Engineering. G. Ivan Maldonado, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Kevin T. Clarno Lee L. Riedinger Arthur E. Ruggles Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) i Boiling Water Reactor Core Simulation with Generalized Isotopic Inventory Tracking for Actinide Management A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Jack Douglas Galloway August 2010 i Copyright © 2010 by Jack Douglas Galloway All rights reserved. ii Acknowledgments In this short space I would like to thank all the people who have worked to be a support to me throughout this endeavor. First off, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. G. Ivan Maldonado, who years ago pursued and encouraged me to enroll in graduate school and who has been an invaluable technical advisor as well as friend through these years. The number of people who have served as encouragements, technical support, and fellowship are too numerous to mention, but those who have stood out will be mentioned. Dr. Matthew Jessee as both friend and technical mentor, Dr. Kevin Clarno who is also serving on my committee, Dr. Ian Gauld who always had his door open to help, David Dixon who’s friendship has been a joy for years, Hermilo Hernandez, the number of collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who have worked to keep me both funded and serving on a truly enjoyable project. In addition I would like to thank Julie and Jon, my sister and brother, for their emotional support and encouragement. I want to thank my wife, Becky, for the support and encouragement she has provided throughout this journey. As I look at the people who have surrounded me and been my support through these years I am both humbled and thankful. The most influential people in my life are my parents Gary and Jennie Galloway. I am so thankful for Mom’s constant encouragement and affirming words. I also thank my Dad; as a mentor in Christ, as a Father figure, as a nuclear engineer. I only hope I can garner the respect of my peers in technical prowess and more importantly in strength of character and humility that he has over his years as a nuclear engineer. Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank Christ Jesus, to whom I gave my life over to many years ago, and who has never failed. As I look back through this journey, I see how He has fulfilled his promise to never leave; especially in the most difficult times. May this document serve as a witness to me and those who read, testifying to Christ’s faithfulness. iii Abstract The computational ability to accurately simulate boiling water reactor operation under the full range of standard steady-state operation, along with the capability to fully track the isotopic distribution of any fueled region in any location in the core has been developed. This new three-dimensional node-by-node capability can help designers track, for example, a full suite of minor and major actinides, fission products, and even light elements that result from depletion, decay, or transmutations. This isotopic tracking capability is not restricted to BWRs and can be employed in the modeling of PWRs, CANDUs, and other reactor types that can be modeled with the NESTLE code, the base core simulator employed in this research. To accurately simulate boiling water reactor operation, a major thermal-hydraulics upgrade was performed which involved the implementation of a drift-flux solution scheme to model steady- state boiling water flow. Sub-cooled boiling and bulk boiling are accurately modeled and a scheme for computing the correct flow distribution has been implemented. In addition, the incorporation of a nodal ORIGEN-based microscopic depletion solution has been included which allows for exceptional detail in tracking a large number of elements in every node of a core design, thus accounting for spectral dependencies such as moderator density effects, moderator temperature effects, fuel temperature effects, as well as controlled or uncontrolled conditions. The results of this study show the excellent fidelity of the two-phase solution for accurately predicting the boiling of water when compared to experimental results. Likewise, the isotopic inventory results show near-identical agreement with the well-established and validated ORIGEN-based SCALE/TRITON isotopic depletion sequence. The aim of these developments is to eventually produce a publicly available three-dimensional core simulator capable of assessing detailed isotopic inventories, a capability particularly valuable for the evaluation of recycling scenarios and actinide management in a variety of reactor types and fuel designs. iv Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 4 1.2.1 Transmutation ........................................................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Thermal-Hydraulics ................................................................................................. 10 1.2.3 Isotopics .................................................................................................................. 11 2 Proof of Principle Studies ...................................................................................................... 13 3 Two-Phase Thermal-Hydraulic Model ................................................................................... 24 3.1 Thermal-Hydraulics Overview ........................................................................................ 24 3.2 Nestle Drift-Flux Solution ............................................................................................... 26 3.3 Flow Distribution ............................................................................................................ 37 3.4 Thermal Limits ................................................................................................................ 42 4 Code Validation ..................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Water Property Validation ............................................................................................. 43 4.2 Thermal-Hydraulic Validation ........................................................................................ 46 4.2.1 Benchmark Overview .............................................................................................. 46 4.2.2 Experiment Description .......................................................................................... 47 4.2.3 Single Phase Results ................................................................................................ 48 4.2.4 Two-Phase Results .................................................................................................. 54 4.3 Coupled Neutronics and Thermal Hydraulics Validation ............................................... 61 v 4.3.1 NESTLE Input ..........................................................................................................
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