Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1999 International RERTR Meeting

FUEL DEPLETION ANALYSES FOR THE HEU CORE OF GHARR-1;

Part I: ACTINIDE INVENTORY

S. Anim-Sampong¹, E.H. K. Akaho,¹ H. O. Boadu¹, J.D.K. Intsiful², S. Osae³

¹Dept. of Nuclear Eng. & Mat. Sci., NNRI,
²National Centre for Mathematical Sciences,
³Dept. of Physics, NNRI,

Ghana Atomic Energy Commission
P.O. Box LG 80, Legon, Accra. Ghana

ABSTRACT

The Ghana Research Rreactor-1 (GHARR-1), a 30kW, 90.2% HEU fueled (U-Al) MNSR type reactor went critical on December 17, 1994. Under operating conditions of 2.5hours per day for five days a week at a peak thermal neutron flux of 1.0x10¹²n/cm².s, the estimated core life is ten years. After the fuel is depleted, the entire spent fuel assembly will be replaced with a fresh LEU core in the spirit of the RERTR program and in accordance with current trend. This paper presents the results of multigroup fuel burnup and depletion analysis of the GHARR-1 fuel lattice using the WIMSD/4 transport lattice code. The results contained in this paper would be used as microscopic database in performing criticality safety analysis and shielding calculations for the design of a spent fuel storage cask for the GHARR-1 core.

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