Six advanced designs have been proposed as part of an initiative to develop the fourth generation of nuclear reactors. It is hoped that these innovative systems will secure the long-term role of nuclear power in a diverse energy mix by attaining standards of sustainability that are not possible with current technologies. Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are a particularly unique member of this group due to their use of flowing liquid fuel, which allows them to offer a number of advantageous features, especially concern- ing inherent safety, fuel economy, and waste management. However, these benefits are present at the expense of simplicity of design, modelling, and analysis of the systems. Consequently, new tools and methodologies must be developed for this purpose. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to continue the development of one such tool that couples the Monte Carlo neutronics calculations of Serpent with CFD analysis in the OpenFOAM multi-physics toolkit. The intended application of this methodology is to assist the preliminary design of a small MSR for nautical propulsion purposes. Following a deeper explanation of the motivations behind this work, the construction of a steady state model of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR), which has been used as a reference design throughout the thesis, is discussed. Results were compared with those from other studies and showed good agreement between both single and coupled physics calculations. The model was shown to correctly predict expected values of numerous nominal operating parameters in the MSFR including the delayed neutron fraction: an important reactor safety property. Validation was taken a step further by applying the tool to a generic steady state benchmark that uses a highly simplified system. The code demonstrated excellent agreement with other studies in the exercise and calculated predicted temperature and velocity profiles with discrepancies of less than 1%. Finally, the tool was adapted for the simulation of transient events in the MSFR that were selected according to the theoretical risk they pose to the safe reactor operation. The original coupling method demonstrated accurate predictions of the general reactor behaviour during long timescale transients. A second method was developed using time-dependent neutronics calculations and was applied to the simulation of generic reactivity insertions in addition to fresh fuel injections, producing results comparable with other methodologies.
Date of Award | 31 Dec 2023 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
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Supervisor | Timothy Abram (Supervisor) |
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- Generation IV
- OpenFOAM
- Serpent
- CFD
- Molten Salt Fast Reactor
- Molten Salt Reactor
- Multi-physics
- Transient
- Nuclear
- Neutronics
- Monte Carlo
Development of Modelling Methods for the Simulation of Molten Salt Reactors
Pressley, A. (Author). 31 Dec 2023
Student thesis: Phd