| In order to implement new nuclear technologies as a solution to the growing demand for energy, 10 countries agreed on a framework for international cooperation in 2002, to form the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). The goal of the GIF is to design the next generation of nuclear reactors that would be cost effective and would enhance safety. This forum has proposed several types of Generation IV reactors including the Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR). The SCWR comes in two main configurations: pressure vessel SCWR and pressure tube SCWR (PT-SCWR). In this study, the CANDU SCWR (a PT-SCWR) is considered. This reactor is oriented vertically and contains 336 channels with a length of 5 m. The target coolant inlet and outlet temperatures are 350 Celsius and 625 Celsius, respectively. The coolant flows downwards, and the reactor power is 2540 MWth. Various fuel designs have been considered in order not to exceed the linear element rating. However, the dependency between the core power and thermalhydraulics parameters results in the necessity to use a neutronics/thermalhydaulics coupling scheme to determine the core power and the thermalhydraulics parameters. The core power obtained has a power peaking factor of 1.4. The bundle power distribution for all channels has a peak at the third bundle from the inlet, but the value of this peak increases with the channel power. The heat-transfer coefficient and the specific-heat capacity have a peak at the same location in a channel, and this location shifts toward the inlet as the channel power increases. The exit coolant temperature increases with the channel power, while the exit coolant density and pressure decrease with the channel power. Also, higher channel powers lead to higher fuel and cladding temperatures. Moreover, as the coupling method is applied, the effective multiplication factor and the values of thermalhydaulics parameters oscillate as they converge. |
