2006 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

PROGRESS IN THE NEUTRONIC CORE CONVERSION
(HEU-LEU) ANALYSIS OF GHANA RESEARCH REACTOR-1

S. Anim-Sampong, B.T. Maakuu, E.H.K. Akaho
Department of Nuclear Engineering & Materials Science
National Nuclear Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission
P.O. Box LG 80, Legon, Accra, Ghana
A. Andam
Department of Physics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology,
Kumasi, Ghana
J.J.R Liaw, J.E. Matos
RERTR Program, Division of Nuclear Engineering
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Ave, Argonne, 60439, IL, USA

ABSTRACT

As required for all nuclear reactors, neutronic and thermal hydraulic analysis are being performed for the HEU-LEU core conversion studies of the Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) facility, which is a commercial version of the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR). Stochastic Monte Carlo particle transport methods and tools (MCNP4c/MCNP5) were used to fine-tune a previously developed 3-D MCNP model of the GHARR-1 facility and perform neutronic analysis of the 90.2% HEU reference and candidate LEU (UO₂, U₃Si₂, U-9Mo) fresh cores with varying enrichments from 12.6%-19.75%. In this paper, the results of the progress made in the Monte Carlo neutronic analysis of the HEU reference and candidate LEU fuels are presented. In particular, a comparative performance assessment of the LEU with respect to neutron flux variations in the fission chamber and experimental irradiation channels are highlighted.

 

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