USE OF WIMS/PANTHER TO ANALYSE NITROGEN WORTH MEASUREMENTS AT THE UK FLEET OF AGRS

EDF Energy, Barnett Way, Barnwood, Gloucester, GL4 3RS, UK

eddie.birkett@edf-energy.com

Published online: 22 February 2021

Abstract

The UK fleet of Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs) are moderated with graphite and cooled with carbon dioxide. Each reactor consists of over 300 fuel channels with a cluster of UO2 fuel pins surrounded by graphite. Primary shutdown is achieved with control rods, which are at interstitial locations at six AGR stations, and in vacated fuel channels in the seventh. Nitrogen injection into the coolant is used for diverse shutdown or hold down.

The reactivity worth of nitrogen was measured during cold commissioning at each AGR during the 1970s and 1980s. This measurement involved inducing a flux transient through a known change in nitrogen pressure, with conversion into a reactivity worth using kinetic data. Noting the time elapsed since this work (over 40 years) it is sensible to review this validation and reconsider these measurements using a consistent source of kinetic data.

The lattice code WIMS and the reactor code PANTHER can be used to analyse the commissioning cores, in particular to determine the core-wide kinetic data. Furthermore the calculated worth of nitrogen can be compared with measurement. For the six interstitial AGR reactor designs nitrogen worth is under-predicted by about 10% and by about 5% for the inchannel design.

This consistent under-prediction is investigated further with SERPENT.