The goals of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) are to expand the use of nuclear energy to meet increasing global energy demand, to address nuclear waste management concerns and to promote non-proliferation. Implementation of the GNEP requires development and demonstration of three major technologies: (1) Light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel separations technologies that will recover transuranics to be recycled for fuel but not separate plutonium from other transuranics, thereby providing proliferation-resistance; (2) Advanced Burner Reactors (ABRs) based on a fast spectrum that transmute the recycled transuranics to produce energy while also reducing the long term radiotoxicity and decay heat loading in the repository; and (3) Fast reactor fuel recycling technologies to recover and refabricate the transuranics for repeated recycling in the fast reactor system. The primary mission of the ABR Program is to demonstrate the transmutation of transuranics recovered from the LWR spent fuel, and hence the benefits of the fuel cycle closure to nuclear waste management. The transmutation, or burning of the transuranics is accomplished by fissioning and this is most effectively done in a fast spectrum. In the thermal spectrum of commercial LWRs, some transuranics capture neutrons and become even heavier transuranics rather than being fissioned. Even with repeated recycling, only about 30% can be transmuted, which is an intrinsic limitation of all thermal spectrum reactors. Only in a fast spectrum can all transuranics be effectively fissioned to eliminate their long-term radiotoxicity and decay heat. The Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) is the first step in demonstrating the transmutation technologies. It directly supports development of a prototype full-scale Advanced Burner Reactor, which would be followed by commercial deployment of ABRs. The primary objectives of the ABTR are: (1) To demonstrate reactor-based transmutation of transuranics as part of an advanced fuel cycle; (2) To qualify the transuranics-containing fuels and advanced structural materials needed for a full-scale ABR; and (3) To support the research, development and demonstration required for certification of an ABR standard design by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The ABTR should also address the following additional objectives: (1) To incorporate and demonstrate innovative design concepts and features that may lead to significant improvements in cost, safety, efficiency, reliability, or other favorable characteristics that could promote public acceptance and future private sector investment in ABRs; (2) To demonstrate improved technologies for safeguards and security; and (3) To support development of the U.S. infrastructure for design, fabrication and construction, testing and deployment of systems, structures and components for the ABRs. Based on these objectives, a pre-conceptual design of a 250 MWt ABTR has been developed; it is documented in this report. In addition to meeting the primary and additional objectives listed above, the lessons learned from fast reactor programs in the U.S. and worldwide and the operating experience of more than a dozen fast reactors around the world, in particular the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II have been incorporated into the design of the ABTR to the extent possible.

/pdf/advanced-burner-test-reactor-preconceptual-design-report-cgs9gl5eq3.pdf

Advanced burner test reactor preconceptual design report.

A comprehensive survey of the literature in the area of numerical heat transfer (NHT) published between 2000 and 2009 has been conducted Due to the immenseness of the literature volume, the survey

Literature Survey of Numerical Heat Transfer (2000–2009): Part II

This article concerns the application of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to solve the energy equation of a combined radiation and non-Fourier conduction heat transfer problem. The finite propagation speed of the thermal wave front is accounted by non-Fourier heat conduction equation. The governing energy equation is solved using the LBM. The finite-volume method (FVM) is used to compute the radiative information. The formulation is validated by taking test cases in 1-D planar absorbing, emitting, and scattering medium whose west boundary experiences a sudden rise in temperature, or, with adiabatic boundaries, the medium is subjected to a sudden localized energy source. Results are analyzed for the various values of parameters like the extinction coefficient, the scattering albedo, the conduction-radiation parameter, etc., on temperature distributions in the medium. Radiation has been found to help in facilitating faster distribution of energy in the medium. Unlike Fourier conduction, wave fronts have b...

Lattice Boltzmann Method Applied to the Solution of Energy Equation of a Radiation and Non-Fourier Heat Conduction Problem

Investigating the effect of computational grid sizes on the predicted characteristics of thermal radiation for a fire

Heat transfer: a review of 2002 literature

Validation study of computer code sphincs for sodium fire safety evaluation of fast reactor

Liquid sodium pool combustion is a coupled phenomenon of heat and mass transfer, chemical reaction, and aerosol dynamics. This article presents numerical investigation of the coupled phenomena using a new computational tool. Boundary layer equations are solved to obtain the thermalhydraulic field above the pool surface. The chemical reaction and heat and mass transfer are solved interactively considering radiation heat transfer and behavior of reaction product aerosols. Numerical results are compared with experiments, and agreement is excellent concerning burning rate, flame temperature, and height. It is concluded that the sodium pool combustion is self-limited and negative feedback is at work.

Numerical investigation of mass and heat transfer in sodium pool combustion

Sodium pool combustion phenomena under natural convection airflow

In the present study, a numerical methodology has been developed to solve a non-premixed diffusion flame under natural convection. The methodology has been applied to the calculation of the liquid sodium pool combustion experiment at various pool temperatures and oxygen molar fractions. The authors have proposed expressions of aerosol dynamics, radiation heat transfer and evaporation of liquid sodium that are applicable to sodium combustion phenomena. The computations reproduce the experimental observations concerning burning rate, flame temperature and flame height, consistently. The aerosol release fractions are also in good agreement with the measurement. Dominant mechanisms of the mass and heat transfer are identified through the numerical simulation. An intrinsic feature found in the present study is that the liquid sodium pool combustion is self-limited and a negative feedback mechanism is at work. Interaction among the thermal-hydraulics, chemical reaction and aerosol dynamic behavior plays an important role in the phenomena and it has been successfully analyzed by the numerical simulation. The present method can be used to understand sodium combustion phenomena and applied to the modeling of sodium pool combustion for safety analyses of liquid metal fast reactors. The numerical simulation is a useful tool because it can easily employ various conditions by changing parameters.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/18811248.2003.9715338

Yuji Tajima

Papers

Validation study of computer code sphincs for sodium fire safety evaluation of fast reactor

Numerical investigation of mass and heat transfer in sodium pool combustion

Numerical investigation of mass and heat transfer in sodium pool combustion

Sodium pool combustion phenomena under natural convection airflow

Numerical Simulation of Non-Premixed Diffusion Flame and Reaction Product Aerosol Behavior in Liquid Metal Pool Combustion