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This report summarizes the FY2022-23 work performed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) on sibling pins that are part of the High Burnup (HBU) Spent Fuel Data Project. The project is funded by the US Department of Energy’s Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Office, which is part of the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition Office.
This report presents the results of lattice optimization studies performed to find optimum locations for gadolinia burnable absorber (BA) rods in pressurized water reactor (PWR) lattice fuel designs. Initial excess reactivity suppression allows core designers to further improve operational economics by extending cycle length. Gadolinia BAs are commonly used in boiling water reactor assembly designs for this purpose. In recent years, gadolinia absorbers have been used in PWR designs owing to their longer effectiveness for reactivity suppression compared with common BAs used in PWR assemblies. This report examines the optimum gadolinia pin placement in 17 × 17 PWR lattices at different fuel and gadolinia concentrations for optimized lattice performance, using the SCALE/Polaris lattice physics code. The completed work is continuation of the Light Water Reactor LEU+ Lattice Optimization (ORNL/TM-2021/2366) project. An optimization driver called the metaheuristic optimization tool (MOT) is used to automate domain space exploration and optimization of the lattice designs. Heuristics from previous light-water reactor (LWR) lattice optimization studies were used to construct the objective function and define the domain space for optimization. This work successfully demonstrated that the optimization algorithms of MOT can generate feasible, nonproprietary PWR lattice designs with gadolinia.
This work focused on improving the understanding and modeling of conjugate heat transfer in the Stable Salt Reactor (SSR), particularly the transfer of heat from molten fuel salt inside narrow fuel pins, through the metal cladding and into the surrounding coolant salt.
Measurements of low field magnetization, trapped flux magnetization and 5 K flux creep in single crystal of CaKFe 4 As 4 under pressure up to 7.5 GPa in a diamond pressure cell are presented. Further, the observed evolution of the temperature dependence of the self-field critical current and slowing down of the base temperature flux creep rate are explained within the two sources of pinning hypothesis involving presence of CaFe 2 As 2 intergrowths suggested in the literature. Above the half collapsed tetragonal structural transition under pressure, where superconductivity is non-bulk or absent, critically diminished or no diamagnetism and flux trapped magnetization were observed.
Connector pin consisting of a piezoresistive crystal, retainer spring and a bridge circuit with voltmeter is used to test connector sockets and may be adapted for multiple socket testing.
Shear pin coupling with plugged hollow shaft provides required load capacity for shaft protection and has no groove to induce fatigue failure.
Measurement of harmonics produced by a pin diode in microwave switch
Ultrasonic attenuation of alkali halide crystals in 120 to 180 degrees K range, noting thermal annealing of dislocation pinning centers
1 amp, 1 watt, no fire, dual circuit, four pin high pressure squib with uniform output and initiation characteristics for high temperature environments
Very high burnup vapor transport fuel pin concept for long life nuclear reactors
Critical pinning current density for initiating flux flow in Pb-Bi type II superconducting foils, noting dependence on surface to volume ratio
Analysis of cylindrical reactor fuel pin for clad stress caused by fission gases
Fatigue resistant shear pin with hollow shaft and two plugs
Electrical connector pin with wiping action to assure reliable contact
Evaluation of failure modes and redesign of SERT-2 gimbal pin puller
Using computer code to study behavior of vapor transport fuel pin in boiling water reactor
Flux pinning mechanisms in type-2 semiconductors and specific heat measurements on annealed and deformed pure niobium samples
Data are presented on the peak effect of a Nb-Ti alloy. The temperature dependence of the critical current at a field equal to or higher than the peak field is shown to agree with a model of a rigidly pinned vortex lattice.