Abstract:
Lead-bismuth cooled reactors utilizing liquid lead-bismuth as a coolant in the primary loop system are an advanced nuclear energy system with significant developmental prospects. Benefiting from the excellent neutronic properties, superior heat transfer performance, remarkable γ shielding, and containment capabilities for radioactive products of lead-bismuth materials, these reactors can achieve higher power densities and a simplified system design, making it feasible to develop small capacity, ultra-long-life micro reactors. Micro lead-bismuth cooled reactors have unique advantages in the comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy and are a crucial option for future mobile energy supply technologies. Their miniaturization and lightweight design are key to enhancing the overall performance of lead-bismuth nuclear power systems. This paper focused on the challenges of multi-physics, multi-variable, and multi-constraint coupling effects in the design optimization of miniaturization and lightweight of micro lead-bismuth cooled reactors. Initially, an analysis of the impact of fuel/coolant and solid moderator/reflector layer materials on the core’s critical dimensions and mass was conducted to guide fuel/material selection. Following this, the reactor core’s multi-factor synergistic optimization design was carried out using the self-developed DOPPLER platform for multi-physics intelligent design optimization of lead-bismuth cooled reactors. This led to the proposal of a miniaturized and lightweight 5 MWt micro lead-bismuth cooled reactor conceptual design scheme, MILLER-5, which also involved an assessment of the reactor core’s physical characteristics and steady-state thermal-hydraulic properties. MILLER-5 is loaded with 139.8 kg of PuN-ThN fuel, uses
208Pb-Bi as the coolant, and solid
208Pb as the reflector layer material. The fuel assemblies are surrounded by the solid moderator ZrH
1.6 to enhance the initial
keff of the core, thereby reducing the fuel load and core active zone volume. The core’s volume power density is 114.8 W/cm³, with a refueling cycle of 1 000 d. The reactor core features stable reactivity swing and a flat power distribution, with all reactivity coefficients being negative, and a substantial margin of steady-state thermal-hydraulic safety.