The KALIMER-600 core neutronic design with a single enrichment

To meet the goals of GENERATION-IV, such as the economics and proliferation resistance, the KALIMER-600 core of 600 MWe with no blanket assemblies and fuel rods of a single enrichment was designed. The core is designed to have a conversion ratio slightly larger than unity with no blanket assemblies in order not to produce an excess amount of high grade plutonium and to have no need of external feeds of fissile materials. To control the power peaking factor caused by a single enrichment, the driver fuel region was classified into three different core regions by FA types. Burnable absorbers, moderator rods and vacancy rods are introduced to control the power peaking factor. After extensive trials and errors by varying the number of replacement rods, a final core meeting the design ground rules, was selected. The selected KALIMER-600 breakeven core has an average breeding ratio of 1.005 and a average discharge burnup of 82 MWD/kg. The neutronic performance analysis based on the equilibrium cycle calculations shows that the KALIMER-600 breakeven core is satisfactorily designed to achieve the design goal of a breeding ratio under the given design constraints. (author)