A high-performance soluble-boron-free small modular reactor core

This paper documents results of a neutronic design study of a soluble-boron-free (SBF) small modular reactor (SMR) core. The design specifically utilizes region-wise BigT absorbers as substitute for the soluble-boron reactivity control. The analyses clearly demonstrate high performance potential of the SBF SMR design as burnup reactivity swing over its 52-month cycle is well within the desired range for a successful SBF operation (i.e., < 1,000 pcm). In addition, relatively uniform power profiles, both radially and axially, are obtained throughout the simulated cycle. All assembly branch and multi-physics core calculations in this study were completed using the Monte Carlo Serpent and Coredax diffusion codes with ENDF/B-V7.1 library. (author)