Evolution of the importance of neutron-induced reactions along the cycle of an LFR

Centro de investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Energy Department, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain

^* e-mail: pablo.romojaro@ciemat.es
^** e-mail: francisco.alvarez@ciemat.es

Published online: 30 September 2020

Abstract

The Lead-cooled Fast Reactor is one of the three technologies selected by the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform that can meet future European energy needs. Several LFR concepts are now in design phase, such as MYRRHA and ALFRED, and accurate nuclear data are required for the neutronic and safety assessment of the fast reactor designs. In this work, an assessment of the evolution of the importance of neutron-induced reactions along the cycle of a reference LFR design (i.e., ALFRED) with the state-of-the-art JEFF-3.3 nuclear data library is performed. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out with MCNP6 code in order to identify the most relevant isotopes and reactions from the neutronic point of view at BoL, BoC and EoC. Furthermore, an uncertainty quantification has been performed with the SUMMON system to study the evolution of uncertainties in the k_eff along the reactor cycle. The results from this work provide an exhaustive picture on the influence of nuclear data on core criticality performance, identifying key quantities and nuclear data needs relevant to achieve an improved safety level for LFR.