Research on segment design of control rod in sodium-cooled fast reactor

In sodium-cooled fast reactors, control rods are commonly used to compensate for the excess reactivity and shut down the reactor. The traditional sodium-cooled fast reactor design consists of the safety rod, shim rod and regulating rod. The ¹⁰B enrichment of the shim rods is relatively higher, which unavoidably increases the burnup, the heat generation and the power peak factor of the fuel assemblies around the shim rods. To solve this issue, the segment design of control rods was proposed. Compared with traditional design, the new design can significantly reduce the heat generation by about 30 percent and burnup of control rods by about 50 percent, as well as improve the power peak factor of the fuel assemblies around the shim rods. The replacement cycle of the control rods can be extended by time. (authors)