Analysis and construction of the high density storage racks for spent fuel of the research reactor IEA-R1

Abstract

The IEA-R1 research reactor works 40h weekly, with 4.5 Mw power. The storage rack for spent fuel elements has less than half of its initial capacity. Under these conditions, the reactor operating for 32h/week will have 3 spent fuel by year, approximately 3 utilization rate Positions/year; thus, we will have only about six years of capacity for storage. Since the desired service life of the IEA-R1 is at least another 20 years, it will be necessary to increase the storage capacity of spent fuel by doubling the wet storage in the reactor’s pool. 3M’s neutron absorber BoralcanTM was chosen after reviewing the literature about available materials for the construction of a new storage rack. This work presents studies for the construction of new storage racks with double of capacity using the same place of the current ones. Criticality safety analysis was performed with MCNP-5 Monte Carlo code, using two Evaluated Nuclear Data Files (ENDF/B-VI and ENDF/B-VII) in calculations, and subsequently, the results were compared. The full charge of the storage rack with only new fuel elements (maximum reactivity) was considered to calculate the keff. The results obtained in the simulations show that it is possible doubling the storage capacity of the spent fuel elements. Additionally, it complies with safety limits established by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Brazilian Commission of Nuclear Energy (CNEN) standards to the criticality criteria (keff <0.95). This is only possible with the use of neutron absorber material.