Abstract
Building on prior experience for the 2010 initial SmAHTR neutronic design and on 2012 neutronic design for the advanced high temperature reactor (AHTR), this paper presents the main results of the neutronic design effort for the newly re-purposed SmAHTR-CTC reactor concept. The results are obtained based on full-core simulations performed with SCALE6.1. The dimensionality of the SmAHTR design space is reduced by using constraints originating in material fabricability, fuel licensing, molten salt chemistry, thermal-hydraulic and mechanical considerations.
The new design represents in many regards a substantial improvement from the neutronic performance standpoint over the 2010 SmAHTR concept. Among other results, it is shown that fuel cycle length of over 2 years or discharged fuel burnup of 40GWd/MTHM are possible with a low, 8% fuel enrichment in a once-through fuel cycle, while 8-year once-through fuel cycle lengths are possible at higher fuel enrichments.