Calculation of PWR Thorium Pin Cell Burnup and Isotope Prediction Using WIMSD-5B Code

Abstract

The amount of thorium in the world is very abundant and the benefits of using thorium as fuel for nuclear reactors such as PWR are increasingly widespread, so it needs to be analyzed. In the initial phase, the PWR pin cell fuel analysis was carried out using the WIMSD-5B code. The PWR ThO2-UO2 fuel in the cladding with the fuel assembly model 17 x 17 is analyzed by its fuel burn up, neutron flux and isotope composition after maximum operation. The pin cell model consisting of fuel, cladding and coolant with a square pitch of 12.6 cm are calculated using different libraries. Eigenvalues, neutron fluxes and isotope concentrations were compared with the PWR pin cell model to high burnup. The eigenvalues and flux neutron as a function of burnup are good, the maximum difference is within 7.41% and the mean absolute difference is less than 3.12 %. The best comparison of fission product isotope concentrations is to use the ENDFB7.1 library with Thorium fuel and is comparable to the uranium fuel reported in the literature. Data sources for actinides and fission products used infuel depletion calculations for thorium fuel are all documented.