A Cylindrical Shielding Design Concept for the Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

In the Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR), a metal fueled, blanket-free, pool type SFR concept is adopted to acquire the inherent safety characteristics and high proliferation-resistance. In the pool type fast reactor, the intermediate heat exchangers (IHXs), which transfer heat from the primary sodium pool to a secondary sodium loop, are placed inside of the reactor vessel. Hence, secondary sodium passing the IHXs can be radioactivated by a ²³Na(n,g)²⁴Na reaction, and radioactivated secondary sodium causes a significant dose in the Steam Generator Building (SGB). Therefore, a typical core of a pool type fast reactor is usually surrounded by a massive quantity of shields. In addition, the blanket composed of depleted uranium plays a role as superior shielding material; a significant increase in shields is required in the blanket-free pool type SFR. In this paper, a new cylindrical shielding design concept is proposed for a blanket-free pool type SFR. In a conventional shielding design, massive axial shields are required to prevent irradiation of secondary sodium passing IHXs and they should be replaced according to the subassembly replacement in spite of negligible depletion of the shielding material. The proposed shielding design concept minimizes the quantity of shields without their replacement. In this paper, a new cylindrical shielding design concept is proposed for a blanket-free pool type SFR such as a PGSFR. The proposed design concept satisfied the dose limit in the steam generator building successfully without introducing a large quantity of B₄C shielding inside the subassembly