Neutronic study of ELECTRA using reprocessed fuel and depleted uranium

The present work aims to develop a neutronic study of a small-scale lead-cooled nuclear system. The data of ELECTRA (European Lead Cooled Training Reactor) were used for the simulations, considering its similarities to a Micro Reactor. This reactor has been developed by the Royal Institute of Technology together with Uppsala University and Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden. It is a low-power fast reactor (0.5MWth), created with the purpose of demonstrating technology and conducting research. In addition to having inherent system safety, it also enables the use of reprocessed fuels, such as (Pu,Zr)N. This paper examines the use of reprocessed fuel and depleted uranium in the ELECTRA reactor, in order to evaluate its primary neutronic parameters. The MCNP6 (Monte Carlo N-Particle, version 6) was used to simulate the neutronic behavior of ELECTRA considering two scenarios: depleted uranium diluted in reprocessed fuel; and depleted uranium located in specific fuel rods within the reactor core. The first stage evaluates different concentrations of depleted uranium diluted in the reprocessed fuel. The second phase stage examines the use of fuel rods with depleted uranium positioned at different location in ELECTRA core. (author)