Parametric study of thorium fuel cycles in a 100MWth pebble bed high temperature reactor

Abstract

The current project was conducted in order to select an optimized open Thorium / Uranium fuel cycle for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) concept in motivation for the 100MWth PBMR Power Plant. A sensitivity study on the heavy metal loading of the fuel sphere was performed to accomplish this task. The effect on various parameters was evaluated to determine the influence of varying the Heavy Metal (HM) from 6 gHM/sphere to 20 gHM/sphere and at different feed fuel enrichments from 6 to 18 wt%. The findings also gave insight into the fuel cycle performance and the Uranium ore savings that is envisaged. The 20 gHM/sphere HM loading performed the best amongst the other HM fuel loadings. It also showed the least Uranium ore requirement namely; 15 % less than that required by the Uranium cycle. Recommendations for further research based on the results obtained in the study, are made in the closing chapters.