A design study of sodium cooled metal fuel core for high outlet-temperature

A design study of sodium cooled metal fuel core was performed. The new core concept studied here has low radial power peaking by applying three regions core configuration with different diameters of fuel pins and the same enrichment of plutonium. The core reveals constant radial power distribution during nominal power operation, which gives the advantage of low cladding maximum temperature or high core outlet temperature with a cladding limit temperature. The core thermal hydraulic design shows that a core outlet temperature as high as that of the oxide fuel core is feasible even in the application of metal fuel pins, which have a lower cladding limit temperature than oxide fuel pins. The core concept is possible to have additional attractiveness such as high breeding ratio, high burnup, and long-term operation cycle due to its high internal conversion ratio. (author)