Full core SSR-W simulations using DONJON5

Abstract

The Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner (SSR-W) is a fast Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) concept designed to burn transuranic (TRU) elements. In this concept, the fuel salt differs from the coolant, another molten salt. The first salt is located inside fuel pins, arranged in a fuel assembly. Depletion simulations of such reactors are then challenging as they are very different from usual solid fuel and other molten salt reactor concepts where the fuel is also the coolant. This work presents a two-stage calculation scheme for full- core simulation of the SSR-W using DRAGON and DONJON. Good agreement between DRAGON and SERPENT is observed for fuel assembly calculations. A sensitivity study related to the natural venting of non-soluble elements is then performed with DRAGON. This produces macroscopic data for 3D S N transport calculations performed with DONJON. This process makes it possible to fully simulate different core configurations over a long operation period. Discharge burnup and plutonium feed rates are then estimated for a particular refueling strategy, defined in this paper, for each core configuration. Finally, simulations of the complete core show the ability of the SSR-W to burn a significant proportion of the TRU initially loaded, depending on the TRU-vector considered.