Saudi International Conference On Nuclear Power Engineering (SCOPE) is the first conference in the history of Saudi Arabia devoted to nuclear energy. Held on November 13-15, 2023 at the King Fahd Conference Centre in Dhahran, the event hosted world-renowned researchers and scientists presenting their latest research and ideas to support the development of nuclear energy in the world.
One of the conference participants was a student of Electrical Power Engineering - Rafał Stoga, who delivered a lecture entitled "Neutronic Analysis of the Westinghouse Demonstration Lead Fast Reactor". He was awarded second place in the competition for the best students in the field of scientific research.
The article, written in cooperation with Jakub Sierchuła, PhD presents a comprehensive neutron analysis of the DLFR reactor (Demonstration of the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor) from Westinghouse, which is a modern concept of a fast reactor cooled with liquid lead. It is a technology demonstrator designed to demonstrate the feasibility and profitability of the project before its implementation on a commercial scale. For the needs of the article and conference presentation, a model of the DLFR reactor core was developed in the OpenMC program, thanks to which the influence of two types of fuel - uranium dioxide and uranium nitride - on the basic neutron parameters was examined. Moreover, the work presents several advantages of fast reactors compared to the more commonly used thermal reactors. A series of Monte Carlo simulations were performed for two fuel configurations of the DLFR reactor core. The analysed output data included: effective neutron multiplication factor, neutron flux as a function of neutron energy, conversion factor and change in isotope mass as a function of time and burn-up. Based on the obtained parameters, it can be concluded that uranium nitride is a promising alternative fuel to uranium dioxide, which can be used in new types of nuclear reactors. Moreover, significantly lower production of minority actinides was demonstrated in fast reactors compared to thermal reactors. This indicates that the use of this type of reactor can significantly contribute to reducing the problem of storing long-lived nuclear waste.
Congratulation!