Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

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Nuclear Engineering and Design

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Conceptual design of Super FR for MA transmutation with axially T

heterogeneous core
Takanari Fukuda , Akifumi Yamaji
⁎

Cooperative Major in Nuclear Energy, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1, Okubo, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Supercritical water cooled Fast Reactor (Super FR) is featured with the large coolant density reduction by almost
SuperCritical light Water cooled Reactor 1/10 from the core inlet to the outlet. Since Minor Actinides (MAs) not only have large neutron capture cross
(SCWR) sections for thermal neutrons, but also can fission with fast neutrons, MA transmutation performance of Super FR
Super Fast Reactor (Super FR) may greatly depend on MA loading positions in the core axial direction of Super FR.
Minor actinides transmutation
However, such investigations have never been conducted. Hence, this study aims to design a Super FR
Conceptual core design
transmutation core concept with the axial configuration of multiple layers of Mixed Oxide (MOX) and blanket
fuels, with a focus on the influence of the large axial coolant density change on MA transmutation and core
characteristics.
With the design criteria of the negative Void Reactivity Coefficient (VRC), the Maximum Cladding Surface
Temperature (MCST) < 650 ℃ and the Maximum Linear Heat Generation Rate (MLHGR) < 39 kW/m, three-
dimensional neutronics and thermal-hydraulics coupled core burnup calculations have been carried out.
Assembly-wise coolant flow rate distribution is determined to attain high core average outlet temperature and
the core characteristics of different designs have been evaluated for the equilibrium core after the cores have
reached equilibrium states with given fuel shuffling schemes. It has been shown that the MA transmutation
amount is limited by deterioration of VRC due to increase of Pu enrichment for compensating the reactivity
penalty by MA loading. Moreover, such influence has been found to be more significant in the lower region of the
core, where the coolant density is relatively high. Hence, the core design with MA loading to the upper MOX
layer is favorable for improving the MA transmutation performance. However, the trade-off relationship be-
tween the MA transmutation amount and thermal-hydraulics performance (increase of MLHGR and decrease of
average outlet temperature) has been revealed. To overcome the issue, the core radial zoning has been applied
and it has been found effective to suppress the trade-off relationship.

1. Introduction differences in fuel manufacturing, fuel performance, fuel cycle proces-

For rationalizing the georgical disposal of high-level radioactive
waste and moderating its risk, the transmutation of Minor Actinides
(MAs) has been known to be effective. Generally, fast reactors with hard
neutron spectrum has been extensively studied for MA transmutation,
because of large number of neutron yield per fission, which provides
large number of excess neutrons that can be used for MA transmutation.
Fast spectrum is also preferable from the viewpoint of gaining fission
reaction of MA isotopes (Walter et al., 2012). For such fast reactor
design studies, such as Sodium cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) design stu-
dies, homogeneous loading (i.e., uniform additives of MA to all fuels in
the core) and heterogeneous loading of MA (i.e., loading of MA bearing
fuel to targeted regions of the core) is often discussed with respect to
sing, core reactivity characteristics, transmutation amount in a given
time, and decay heat of spent fuels (OECD/NEA, 2012). However, SFR
and other fast reactors are normally single-phase cooled reactors and do
not have significant neutron spectrum change across/along the core and
MA burning characteristics and the core characteristics are not greatly
influenced by different MA loading methods.
On the other hand, numerous studies have also been conducted to
show that thermal reactors (primarily, Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs),
Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), and Heavy Water Reactors
(HWRs)) can also transmute MAs. Focus of these studies is often about
keeping the core characteristics and fuel performance comparable to
the current operating fleets with moderate amount of MA loading
(OECD/NEA, 2013). The limited MA transmutation capability of

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sun-village@akane.waseda.jp (T. Fukuda).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110619
Received 6 January 2020; Received in revised form 19 March 2020; Accepted 21 March 2020
Available online 07 April 2020
0029-5493/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji
Nomenclature
MA Minor Actinide
RBWR Resources-renewable Boiling Water Reactors
SCWR SuperCritical light Water Reactor
Super FR Super Fast Reactor
BOP Balance Of Plant
thermal reactors may be attributed to the relatively small fission yield
per fission, large reactivity penalty due to large absorption cross section
of MAs in thermal neutron spectrum. Moreover, negative coolant void
reactivity characteristics are required, because these reactors are pres-
surized under operating condition and the coolant boils-off under ac-
cident conditions when the system has depressurized. Some studies can
be found, which address efficient conversion of MAs with BWR type
reactors. For example, Resource-renewable BWR (RBWR) concept has
been studied based on the BWR design with tight rod lattice arrange-
ment to harden neutron spectrum. Among the proposed different design
variants, RBWR-TB2 is designed to recycle transuranic elements dis-
charged from the once-through light water reactors (Electric Power
Research Institute, 2012). However, the MA loading methods for effi-
cient MA transmutation has not been investigated. Thus, generally with
SFRs and water-cooled reactors (e.g., BWR, PWR, HWR, RBWR), focus
of the core design study is not about efficient conversion of MAs by MA
loading method (e.g., homogeneous loading and heterogeneous
loading).
Super Fast Reactor (Super FR) is one of the SuperCritical Water-
cooled Reactor (SCWR) concepts, which is cooled with supercritical
light water and adopts tight lattice triangular fuel rod arrangement to
reduce moderator to fuel volume ratio for attaining harder neutron
spectrum. Under supercritical pressure, there is no liquid-gas phase
change, but the coolant property continuously changes from liquid-like
state to gas-like state. The plant adopts once-through direct system, in
which the entire core coolant is directly fed to the turbine. As the result,
unlike the current light water reactors or SFRs that utilize steam gen-
erators, core design has direct influence on the Balance-Of-Plant (BOP),
because average core outlet temperature directly determines the tur-
bine inlet steam temperature (Oka et al., 2010). In the meantime, the
coolant density is greatly reduced from the core inlet to the outlet by
about 10 times as the coolant temperature is increased, as illustrated in
Fig. 1, which significantly changes the neutron spectrum in the core
axial direction as described in Fig. 2. Thus, the core neutronics is
strongly coupled with the core thermal-hydraulics, which also directly
influences the BOP and the plant thermal efficiency.
With respect to MA transmutation, there has been limited study
with Super FR or SCWR. In the preceding study, 700 MWe-class core
concept was preliminary developed with 126 Mixed OXide (MOX) fuel
assemblies and 73 blanket (depleted U) assemblies for MA
Fig. 1. Axial change of coolant density.
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Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619
MOX Mixed OXide
BOEC the Beginning Of Equilibrium Cycle
EOEC the End Of Equilibrium Cycle
MCST Maximum Cladding Surface Temperature
ALHGR Average Linear Heat Generation Rate
MLHGR Maximum Linear Heat Generation Rate
VRC Void Reactivity Coefficient
transmutation (Cao et al., 2008). The study indicated that the designed
core could transmute about 40 kg MA/GWe year, which is twice as
much MAs as an Light Water Reactor (LWR) with the same electricity
output produced (OECD/NEA, 2013). However, no further investiga-
tions were conducted neither to improve the MA transmutation per-
formance, nor to reveal impact of different MA loading method on the
core characteristics.
In the meantime, recently, Super FR with axially heterogeneous core
configuration has been investigated, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The core
generally consists of multiple layers of MOX and blanket fuels and the
studies are focusing on utilization of the large axial coolant density to
improve the core characteristics. For example, the Pu conversion per-
formance of the upper blanket layer was found to be superior to that of
the lower blanket layer, because of lower coolant density (harder
neutron spectrum) (Noda et al., 2018; Sukarman et al., 2019). For MA
nuclides, capture reaction of the thermal neutrons and fission reaction
with the fast neutrons can both transmute MAs. Therefore, MA trans-
mutation performance of Super FR core with large axial coolant density
change may greatly depend on different MA loading in the core axial
direction, but such core characteristics have never been investigated.
In summary, core design of Super FR with MA loading has unique
issues as axial MA loading method has large impact on not only the core
neutronics characteristics (MA transmutation performance and coolant
void reactivity feedback), but on the core thermal-hydraulics (core
average outlet temperature), which directly influences the BOP and
plant thermal efficiency. However, improving MA transmutation per-
formance of Super FR with considerations of these issues has never been
studied. Hence, this study aims to develop the new axially hetero-
geneous Super FR core design concept, which can effectively utilize the
large axial coolant density changes, with consideration of influence of
different MA loading methods on the core neutronics and thermal-hy-
draulics characteristics.
2. Design method
2.1. Design criteria
For designing core concepts, the fundamental design criteria have
been determined by following the preceding study as follows (Noda
Fig. 2. Axial change of neutron spectrum.
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

Fig. 3. An example of axially heterogeneous core configuration.

et al., 2018): determined by the inlet orifice, which is located at the bottom of each
fuel assembly, so that the peak cladding surface temperature of each
(1) Negative Void Reactivity Coefficient (VRC) (%dk/k/(%void)) assembly is kept below the criterion of 650 ℃ during the operation
(correspond to the positive coolant density reactivity coefficient) cycle.
(2) Maximum Cladding Surface Temperature (MCST) < 650 (℃) As for the fuel design, the design parameters have been tentatively
(3) Maximum Linear Heat Generation Rate (MLHGR) < 39 (kW/m) determined by referring to the preceding study (Someya and Yamaji,
2016). The fuel rod with outer diameter of 10 mm is designed with
Although supercritical water does not exhibit phase change, the advanced stainless-steel cladding with thickness of 0.6 mm and pellet-
negative VRC criterion has long been used for ensuring the core in- cladding diameter gap of 0.2 mm. Since the core is configured by the
herent safety (Noda et al., 2018; Sukarman et al., 2019). In this study, it MOX fuel layers and blanket layers, the fuel stack of each fuel rod
is evaluated by the difference between the effective multiplication consists of two types of fuel pellets. While the blanket fuels are com-
factor (K-eff) at the normal operation condition and that at the condi- posed by the depleted uranium, the initial composition of Pu in the
tion, where the coolant density in the core is uniformly decreased by fresh MOX fuels was determined as (238Pu/239Pu/240Pu/241Pu/242Pu
1%. = 0.4%/51.3%/37.8%/6.5%/4.0), by referring to the preceding study
Similarly, the MCST and MLHGR criteria have been well utilized for (Noda et al., 2017), which is same as that of the spent fuels from the
ensuring the core coolability and fuel integrity, respectively (Noda LWR. Through the irradiation in the equilibrium cycles, the fresh MOX
et al., 2018; Sukarman et al., 2019). The upper limit value of MCST has fuel without initial MA addition changes its composition of Pu and MAs,
been tentatively determined to prevent buckling collapse of the ad- as described in Table 2, which shows that MAs are newly created by the
vanced stainless-steel cladding during abnormal transients (Yamaji neutron capture reaction of Pu. The fuel assembly is hexagonal tight-
et al., 2003). Similarly, the MLHGR limit has been tentatively de- lattice assembly with the assembly pitch of 247 mm, as illustrated in
termined to prevent pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI) Fig. 4. In each fuel assembly, 469 fuel rods are arranged in the trian-
failure during abnormal transients with fuel performance analyses gular lattice with the rod gap size of 1.00 mm. Each fuel assembly is
(Yamaji et al., 2003). equipped with stainless-steal channel box with thickness of 2 mm.
The core configuration basically follows that of the preceding study
(Noda et al., 2018). The total of 349 fuel assemblies are arranged in the
2.2. Design specification and boundary conditions triangular lattice to configure the core with the equivalent diameter and
the active height of 4.84 m and 1.60 m, respectively. The Average
The design boundary conditions have been determined as follows Linear Heat Generation Rate (ALHGR) is tentatively determined as
and summarized in Table 1. This study adopts the “one pass with all 11.5 kW/m, leading to the core thermal power of 3000 MWth. The
upward flow” coolant flow scheme, which simplifies the in-core struc- cycle length is tentatively determined to be 600 days. As the results, the
ture and refueling procedure compared with other proposed flow core average discharge burnup is about 44 GWd/ton, which is about the
schemes (Liu and Oka, 2015). In this flow scheme, the feedwater same as that of the preceding study.
coolant flows down around the shroud, and then, simply flows up the The fuel shuffling scheme is illustrated in Fig. 5. On average, the
coolant channels from the bottom of the core to the top without any fuel assembly stays in the core for 3.5 cycles before discharged. The fuel
reverse flows or branching to different flow paths. The core pressure
and the coolant inlet temperature are 25 MPa and 295 ℃, respectively.
The fuel assembly-wise coolant flow rate distribution is to be Table 2
The change of the composition of Pu and MAs of MOX fuels without MA ad-
Table 1 dition.
Design specifications of the equilibrium core.
Weight ratio (wt%) Fresh fuel Discharged fuel
Active height (m)/equiv. diameter (m) 1.60/4.84
238
Coolant inlet pressure (MPa)/Temperature (℃) 25/295 Pu 0.4 0.5
239
Average discharge fuel batch number 3.47 Pu 51.3 48.9
240
Average discharge burnup (GWd/ton) about 44 Pu 37.8 37.6
241
Number of fuel assemblies 349 Pu 6.5 6.7
242
Assembly pitch (mm)/Channel box thickness (mm) 247/2 Pu 4.0 4.1
237
Number of fuel rods per assembly 469 Np 0.0 0.1
241
Rod diameter (mm)/Pellet-cladding diameter gap (mm)/cladding 10.0/0.2/0.6 Am 0.0 1.2
243
thickness (mm) Am 0.0 0.6
244
Rod gap size (mm)/Pitch to diameter ratio 1.00/1.10 Cm 0.0 0.2

3
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji
Fig. 4. Hexagonal tight-lattice fuel assembly and tight-lattice triangular fuel rod arrangement.
Fig. 5. Fuel shuffling scheme.
loading pattern is basically from the core periphery to the center (the so
called “out-in shuffling”) for flattening the core radial power distribu-
tion. For the pairs of values described in each assembly in Fig. 5, as X/Y,
the right-hand side value describes the fuel batch group (0 means the
fresh fuel group), while the left-hand side value is the label of the as-
sembly for identification in the given fuel batch group.
2.3. The definition of MAs transmutation performance
The composition of MAs has been assumed to be the same as that
which is partitioned from the spent fuels from the PWR with the burnup
of 33 GWd/ton, (237Np/241Am/243Am/244Cm = 49%/30%/16%/5%),
as used in the preceding study (Cao et al., 2008). Among the MA nu-
clides, the fraction of those which are heavier than Cm is considered to
be small enough and neglected from the considerations of this study.
Different studies assume different upper limits to the MA contents
from different aspects, such as fuel manufacturing, core performance,
fuel performance, remote handling and management of spent fuel. For
instance, a study on MA transmutation in sodium fast reactor
(Wakabayashi et al., 1997) assumed the (i) MOX fuels with MA contents
of 5 wt% loaded homogeneously over the core; (ii) MOX fuels with MA
contents of 49 wt% loaded heterogeneously in the core; (iii) MOX fuels
with 9.8 wt% Np and blanket fuels with 46 wt% Am and Cm. However,
since the feasibility in terms of fabricating and handling MOX fuels with
such high MA contents is still under consideration (Tanaka et al., 2007),
4
Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619
this study tentatively limits the MA contents up to 30 (wt%).
For evaluating performance of MA transmutation of different core
designs, the followings are utilized, referring to the preceding studies.
(a) The reduction in mass of MA loaded in the core as the core gen-
erates power, which corresponds to the plant electric output of
1 GWe·year (kg/GWe·year) (Electric Power Research Institute,
2012).
(b) The reduction in mass of MA loaded in the core during one op-
eration cycle (kg/cycle) (Cao et al., 2008; Wakabayashi et al.,
1997).
(c) The ratio of the mass of transmuted MA during one operation cycle
to the mass of MA loaded in the fresh fuels (%/cycle) (Wakabayashi
et al., 1997).
3. Calculation method
For designing the core concept with the consideration of the above-
mentioned design criteria, design specifications and the influence of the
large coolant density/temperature distribution on the core neutronics
and thermal-hydraulics characteristics, this study adopts the three-di-
mensional neutronics and thermal-hydraulics coupled core burnup
calculations (Yamaji et al., 2005) as summarized in Fig. 6.
Firstly, the operation cycle is divided into a number of burnup steps
and the core burnup calculations are carried out for all the burnup steps
with some assumed coolant density distribution. All fuel assemblies
loaded in the core are given the same fuel compositions as those of the
fresh loading fuel assemblies to compose the initial core. Secondly, the
coolant distribution is updated by the thermal-hydraulics calculation
based on the fuel pin-wise core power distribution of all the burnup
steps. Thirdly, at the end of the operation cycle, some of the fuel as-
semblies are discharged from the core, some are reloaded to the next
loading positions and some new assemblies are loaded into the core
according to the predetermined fuel shuffling scheme. As the result the
fuel burnup distributions and the initial fuel compositions of the be-
ginning of the cycle are updated for the next operation cycle. Then, the
whole calculations are repeated from the beginning of the operation
cycle. The fuel shuffling scheme is fixed and unchanged between dif-
ferent operation cycles. Gradually, the fuel burnup distributions and
compositions tend to converge among different operation cycles as the
whole process is repeated. These coupled calculations and fuel re-
loading are repeated until the coolant density distribution and the core
burnup distributions are converged, at which point, the core is con-
sidered to have reached the equilibrium core. Some more details about
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

Fig. 6. Equilibrium core design calculation flow.

the neutronics and thermal-hydraulics calculations are given in the
following sections. More details can also be found in the preceding
study (Noda et al., 2017).
3.1. Neutronics calculation
The neutronics calculations are based on the SRAC2006, which was
developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (Okumura et al., 2007). The
collision probability method is used for triangular unit cell depletion
calculations with the JENDL-4.0 nuclear data library (Shibata et al.,
2011). The depletion calculations are carried out with different coolant
densities to cover the neutron spectrum from the core inlet to the core
outlet and consider the different fuel burnup histories. The creation and
annihilation of MAs are based on the actinides depletion chain dataset
“u4cm6” given in SRAC2006, whose the relevant part is illustrated in
Fig. 7 (Okumura et al., 2007). The fine energy structure of 107 energy
groups is used for the depletion calculations and collapsed to 18 energy
groups for the unit cell-wise homogenized macroscopic cross sections
and tabulated by burnups. Moreover, the “branch-off” calculations have
been performed without changing the fuel depletion chain to obtain the

Fig. 7. Depletion chain of actinides.

5
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji
unit cell-wise homogenized macroscopic cross sections for evaluating
the reactivity change due to temporary coolant density fluctuations.
The fuel assembly depletion calculation is based on the collision
probability method and interpolates the unit-cell-prepared cross section
table by the burnup and coolant density. At this time, Heterogeneous
Form Factor (HFF) is also calculated by evaluating the local power
distribution based on the heterogeneity of the fuel assembly. Moreover,
the assembly-wise homogenized macroscopic cross sections are col-
lapsed to 9 energy groups (6 for fast groups, 3 for thermal groups).
The three-dimensional core burnup calculation has been carried out
with the neutron diffusion calculation by interpolation of the assembly-
wise homogenized macroscopic cross sections with burnup and coolant
density. The pin-wise power distribution in each assembly has been
evaluated by multiplying the assembly-wise core power distribution
and HFF, which is then utilized by the thermal-hydraulics calculation.
3.2. Thermal-hydraulics calculation
The thermal-hydraulics calculation is based on the single channel
model, which considers heat transfer across a single channel and mass
and heat transport in the axial direction of the channel. First, the
maximum power channel of each fuel assembly is identified, and the
coolant flow rate is determined to satisfy the MCST design criterion.
Next, axial coolant average density and temperature distribution are
obtained by calculating the axial mass and heat transportation of the
average channel. At this time, pressure loss of each fuel assembly is
calculated as the sum of friction pressure loss, gravity pressure loss and
acceleration pressure loss in the maximum power channel, and the core
pressure loss is determined as the maximum pressure loss of all the fuel
assemblies.
As for the heat transfer correlation of the supercritical water, Watt’s
correlation has been adopted (Watts and Chou, 1982). The Watt’s
correlation has been derived from experimental data, which cover the
following ranges: (i) mass flux: 106–1060 kg/m2s; (ii) equivalent hy-
draulic diameter: 25 mm and 32.2 mm; (iii) heat flux: 175–440 kW/m2;
(iv) bulk fluid temperature: 150–310 ℃; (v) wall temperature:
260–520 ℃ (Watts and Chou, 1982; International Atomic Energy
Agency, 2014). In contrast, the equivalent hydraulics diameter of the
design considered in this study is 3.3 mm, which is significantly smaller
than the original experimental conditions. Furthermore, the heat flux,
bulk fluid temperature and wall temperature (cladding surface tem-
perature) could be up to 1240 kW/m2, 450 ℃ and 650 ℃, respectively.
Currently, there are no experimental data, which can be used to
fully validate any heat transfer correlations used for the design condi-
tions of Super FR or any other SCWR design concepts. Generally, more
experiments have been conducted with circular tubes with relatively
large hydraulic diameter, using surrogate fluids, and with limited heat
flux, while some studies have addressed effect of hydraulic diameter,
grid spacers, channel geometry and addressed fluid-to-fluid scaling
Fig. 8. The reference core axial configuration.
6
Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619
(International Atomic Energy Agency, 2014). Overall, Watts’ correla-
tion is considered as one of the few correlations, which provides rela-
tively good agreement over wide range of conditions, beyond its ori-
ginal applicable range (International Atomic Energy Agency, 2014). For
example, good agreement with the experimental results of a heat tube
with the diameter of 4.4 mm has been reported (Shiori et al., 2003).
With the above explained limitations, this study uses Watts’ corre-
lation for the following reasons. Firstly, despite relatively large differ-
ence among different correlations near the pseudo-critical point, the
difference is much smaller in the high enthalpy region, which is usually
where MCST is evaluated in the core design analyses (International
Atomic Energy Agency, 2014). It can be understood that in the high
enthalpy region, supercritical water does not exhibit large property
changes with enthalpy and becomes similar to single-phase cooling, in
which case the classical Dittus-Boelter type correlations for single phase
cooling as well as any other correlations being developed for super-
critical water-cooling work well. Secondly, accurate prediction of the
core average outlet temperature (or MCST) is considered as beyond the
scope of this study. It may be a future issue to improve accuracy in
evaluation of MCST and the corresponding average core outlet tem-
perature, so that influence of MA loading on the core thermal-hy-
draulics (especially, the core average outlet temperature) can be eval-
uated more accurately.
4. Core design
4.1. Reference core design
To discuss impacts of different MA loading patterns on the Super FR
core characteristics, the “reference core” without any loading of MA is
firstly developed. The axial configuration of the reference core is illu-
strated in Fig. 8. This configuration is similar to that of the core design
of the preceding studies (Noda et al., 2018; Sukarman et al., 2019). In
the preceding study, the core was configured from the bottom of the
core to the top as blanket/MOX/blanket/MOX/blanket layers. In con-
trast, the reference core of this study is configured from the bottom to
the top as MOX/blanket/MOX/blanket/MOX. Such design modification
from the preceding study is intended to promote neutron leakage under
voided condition and improve void characteristics of the core for ac-
cepting MAs, which normally tends to deteriorate the core void char-
acteristics. The core characteristics of the designed reference core are
summarized in Table 3. The electric power of the plant is calculated by
referring to the correlation between the plant thermal efficiency and
core inlet and outlet temperature (Dobashi et al., 1998).
The outlet temperature of 451 ℃ is about 50 ℃ lower than that of
the SCWR design goal (500 ℃). The relatively low outlet temperature
may be partly attributed to the power peak of the upper MOX layer,
where the cladding surface temperature tends to be high due to high
coolant temperature near the core outlet (Qingjie and Oka, 2015). In
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

Table 3
Reference core characteristics.
Thermal power (MWt)/Electric Power (MWe) 3000/1272
Average/maximum linear heat generation rate (ALHGR/MLHGR) 11.5/35.0
(kW/m)
Maximum cladding surface temperature (MCST) (℃) 650
Coolant temperature (Inlet/Outlet) (℃) 295/451
Pressure loss (BOEC/EOEC) (MPa)* 0.02/0.02
Operation cycle length (days) 600
Pu enrichment (Lower MOX/Inner MOX/Upper MOX) (wt%) 24.0/25.0/21.0
Average discharge burnup (including blankets) (GWd/t) 44
Void reactivity coefficient (VRC) (BOEC/EOEC) (%⊿k/k/(%void)) −0.11/-0.12

* BOEC: beginning of the equilibrium cycle, EOEC: end of the equilibrium

cycle.
Fig. 11. Depletion-history of K-inf in lower and upper MOX layer in the re-
ference core.

the same discharge burnup. Consequently, maximum MA content and

the MA transmutation amount limited by the negative VRC design
criterion are about 4 wt% and 106 kg/GWe·year, respectively (Such a
reference core with the MA content of 4 wt% is to be called from
hereinafter the “Reference MA Core”).
For investigating the difference in deterioration of VRC by MA ad-
dition to the different MOX layers, the burnup profiles of the upper and
lower MOX reactivities (K-inf) without and with 6 wt% MA addition are
compared in Fig. 11. Since the neutron capture cross section of MAs are
larger for thermal neutrons, the reactivity penalty by MA addition in
the lower MOX layer with higher coolant density (0.8 g/cc) is relatively
high compared with that of the upper MOX layer with lower coolant
density (0.1 g/cc). Hence, MA addition to the lower MOX layer suffers
Fig. 9. Axial power distribution at BOEC and EOEC.

the present study, the power density of the upper MOX layer tends to
increase towards EOEC, as shown in Fig. 9, because of the relatively
hard neutron spectrum, which tends to favor more buildup of fissile Pu
compared with the other layers of the core. Improving the core axial
power profiles for attaining higher average outlet temperature may be
an important design issue for future studies.

4.2. The influence of MA addition on the core neutronics characteristics

Fig. 10 shows the change of VRC and the MA transmutation amount

when MAs are added to all the MOX layers uniformly. At this time, for
obtaining the same burnup as that of the reference core, the Pu en-
richment was increased to compensate the reactivity penalty by MA
Fig. 12. VRC and MA transmutation characteristics when MAs are added only
addition. Fig. 10 shows the tendency that VRC deteriorates towards
in the upper MOX layer.
positive as the MA content is increased, due to the increase of the Pu
enrichment for compensating the reactivity penalty by MAs to achieve

Fig. 10. VRC and MA transmutation amount when MAs are added in all MOX Fig. 13. The influence of MA addition on the MLHGR and core outlet tem-
layers. perature.

7
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

Fig. 14. The assembly-wise radial power distribution at BOEC between the reference core and the Upper MA Core.

Fig. 15. The influence of assembly-wise radial power distribution on the assembly-wise coolant outlet temperature.

from larger reactivity penalty, which requires higher Pu enrichment to
compensate and leads to larger VRC deterioration.
To reduce the reactivity penalty with MA loading and the associated
VRC deterioration, the core design, which only accepts MAs in the
upper MOX layer is investigated. As the result, the deterioration of VRC
accompanied with the increase of the MA content became less sig-
nificant as shown in Fig. 12. In the case that the MA content is 30 wt%
in the upper MOX layer, from hereinafter “Upper MA Core”, MA
transmutation amount is evaluated to be 176 kg/GWe year. However,
this Upper MA Core exhibits the MLHGR of 44.5 kW/m, which is over
the design criterion of 39 kW/m. The influence of MA addition on the
core thermal-hydraulics characteristics is discussed in the following
section.
distribution. Fig. 14 compares the assembly-wise power distribution at
BOEC of the reference core and that of the Upper MA Core. For the
Upper MA Core, the core radial power distribution at BOEC is sig-
nificantly center-peaked. As can be seen from the depletion-history of
K-inf of MA bearing fuels described in Fig. 11, increase in MA content
tends to reduce reactivity change with burnup. Because of this deple-
tion characteristics of MA bearing fuels, out-in shuffling scheme, which
is originally adopted for flattening the core radial power distribution,
does not work well for the core with high content of MA. Consequently,

4.3. The influence of MA addition on the core Thermal-Hydraulics

characteristics

Fig. 13 shows the influence of MA addition on the MLHGR and the

core average outlet temperature. For both the Reference MA Core and
the Upper MA Core, the MLHGR increases and the core average outlet
temperature decreases as more MAs are loaded.
The above described trends can be understood from the influence of
MA addition on the core radial power distribution and the mismatch
between the radial power distribution and the coolant flow rate Fig. 16. Fuel shuffling scheme with core radial zoning.

8
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji Nuclear Engineering and Design 363 (2020) 110619

Fig. 17. Radial power distributions with and without core radial zoning.

Table 4
Summary of Proposed Core Designs.
Reference Core Reference MA Core Upper MA Core Upper MA Core with Radial Zoning

Thermal power (MWt)/Electric Power (MWe) 3000/1272 3000/1263 3000/1241 3000/1263

ALHGR/MLHGR (kW/m) 11.5/35.1 11.5/39.1 11.5/44.5 11.5/38.2
Coolant inlet/outlet temp. (℃) 295/451 295/430 295/403 295/430
Average discharge burnup (GWd/t) 44 ← ← ←
Lower/Inner/Upper MOX Pu Enrichment (wt%)* 24/25/21 27/25/23 25.5/27/24 P: 25.5/27/24 C: 25.5/27/22
Lower/Inner/Upper MOX MA content (wt%) 0/0/0 4/4/4 0/0/30 0/0/30
VRC (BOEC/EOEC) (%⊿k/k/(%void)) −0.11/-0.12 −0.04/-0.07 −0.03/-0.05 −0.08/-0.05
MA transmutation amount (kg/GWe year) −67 106 176 178
MA transmutation amount (kg/cycle) 140 219 360 369
MA transmutation ratio (%/cycle) N/A 19.0 11.7 11.9

* P: peripheral core, C: central core.

such core has center-peaked power distribution.
Fig. 15 shows the influence of the swing of assembly-wise radial
power distribution on the assembly-wise coolant outlet temperature of
the Upper MA Core. As described above, the radial power distribution
at BOEC is highly center-peaked, while that at EOEC is relatively flat
since the core-center area burns faster. Accordingly, the assembly-wise
coolant outlet temperature distribution also swings from BOEC to
EOEC. The core average coolant outlet temperature decreases as such
coolant outlet temperature distribution swing increases, because the
MCST design criterion has to be satisfied throughout the cycle.
4.4. Radial power distribution management with core radial zoning
To avoid the deterioration of thermal-hydraulic performance de-
scribed in Section 4.3, new fuel loading scheme with core zoning that
divides the core into the central and peripheral core regions has been
investigated. Fig. 16 shows the proposed fuel shuffling scheme with the
core radial zoning. The pairs of values in assemblies are defined as same
as those described for Fig. 5. The central core is loaded with fuels with
lower Pu enrichment compared with those in the peripheral core for
reducing the radial power peaking. Then, fuel shuffling schemes are
designed for the central core and the peripheral core independently.
Fig. 17 shows the improvement of radial power peaking at BOEC by
the implementation of core radial zoning. The radial power distribution
is flattened and the MLHGR is reduced from 44.5 kW/m to 38.2 kW/m.
Moreover, the outlet temperature was improved from 403 ℃ to 430 ℃.
The detailed configuration of this core, from hereinafter “Upper MA
Core with Radial Zoning”, is to be summarized in following section 4.5.
4.5. Summary of the proposed core designs
Table 4 summarizes the designed cores: the Reference Core, the
Reference MA Core, the Upper MA Core, and the Upper MA Core with
Radial Zoning. The MA transmutation amount of the Reference MA
Core is limited by the negative VRC design criterion. MA target loading
to the upper MOX layer has been found to be effective to increase the
MA transmutation amount without deteriorating the core VRC, al-
though MA transmutation ratio is decreased due to higher initial MA
density. Higher content of MAs led to difficulty in reducing the radial
power peaking (which increased the MLHGR) and caused reduction of
the average core outlet temperature. Hence, the Upper MA core with
Radial Zoning has been proposed, which tolerates loading of large
amount of MAs without much deterioration of the core neutronics
characteristics (negative VRC) and thermal-hydraulics characteristics
(low MLGR and high average outlet temperature). The slight difference
in MA transmutation amount between that of the Upper MA core
(176 kg/GWe year) and that of the Upper MA core with Radial Zoning
(178 kg/GWe year) may be regarded as negligible. However, increasing
the average core outlet temperature may have contributed to slightly
smaller Pu inventory (because of slightly higher reactivity of the core
with slightly smaller core average coolant density) for the core with
radial zoning, which may have contributed to the slightly larger MA
transmutation amount.
5. Conclusions
The Super FR core concepts with axially heterogeneous configura-
tions, which can effectively utilize the large axial coolant density
changes has been developed. It has been shown that the MA transmu-
tation amount is limited by deterioration of VRC due to increase of Pu
enrichment for compensating the reactivity penalty by MA loading.
Moreover, such influence has been found to be more significant in the
lower region of the core, where the coolant density is relatively high.
Hence, the core design with MA loading to the upper MOX layer is
favorable for improving the MA transmutation amount.
However, the trade-off relationship between the MA transmutation

9
T. Fukuda and A. Yamaji
amount and thermal-hydraulics performance (increase of MLHGR and
decrease of average outlet temperature) has been revealed. To over-
come the issue, the core radial zoning has been applied and it has been
found effective to suppress the trade-off relationship.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Takanari Fukuda: Software, Investigation, Writing - original draft,
Visualization. Akifumi Yamaji: Conceptualization, Writing - review &
editing, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
Part of this work was conducted under “Understanding Mechanisms
of Severe Accidents and Improving Safety of Nuclear Reactors by
Computer Science” of Institute for Advanced Theoretical and
Experimental Physics and Waseda Research Institute for Science and
Engineering.
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