AUTHOR=Lei Lou , Lianjie Wang , Bingyan Zhou , Chen Zhao , Bin Zhang , Mingyu Yan , Ce Zhang , Hongzhi Xiang , Yun Cai , Xingbo Wang , Zifan Zhao , Nan Zhou , Jiayi Liu 

TITLE=Research and analysis of the effect between the power level and economy on the lead-based modular nuclear power reactor

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2022.1002077

DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2022.1002077

ISSN=2296-598X

ABSTRACT=Fast reactor is gradually paid attention to in nuclear power due to a better proliferation effect, and its economy is also directly followed. Due to the restriction of the core power density, the core power level is directly related to the volume of the active area. When the power level of the core and the volume of the core gradually increase, the quality of U and 235U in the core at beginning of life will gradually increase on the basis of critical quality. At the same time, due to the gradual increase in the proliferation effect, the utilization rate of uranium resources at the end of life will gradually increase. Due to the characteristics of the large critical quality and high proliferation effect, the U and 235U quality of the low power level core at beginning of life can’t be further reduced because of the critical quality. The life time of the high power level core should be extended to use the wealthy reactivity of the core because of the improvement of the proliferation effect. However, due to the requirements of the nuclear power refuel time and the limitation of fuel consumption, the proliferation effect brought by the improvement of the core power level and the size of the active zone may be less effective. In this article, the power level and economy of lead-based modular nuclear power is analyzed, and the economy of different power level fast reactor with 2000 EFPD life time such as 100MW, 300WM, 500MW, 700MW, and 1000MW thermal power, are designed and analyzed. By analyzing the invention of U and 235U and the fuel utilization of different core schemes, the best economic analysis of the single reactor power of the current lead-base modular reactor is proposed, and the foundation of the lead-based modular nuclear power is provided.