Investigation of the effect of homogeneous addition of minor actinides to uranium oxide nuclear fuel on the neutronics of the fuel assembly of the VVER-1200 reactor

The paper considers the effect of the addition of americium dioxide to fuel on the neutronics of the fuel assembly of the reactor type VVER-1200 (model V-392M). The simulation was carried out with conditions of radial reflection and axial leakage. The rmultiplication factor, the power peaking factor, the conversion ratio, the proportion of delayed neutrons, and the change in the mass of americium in the fuel were estimated. Calculations were performed in the Serpent 2 software package. Jeff 3.1.1 constant software was used. Statistics of 107 neutron histories were considered. The statistical error of the multiplication coefficient is ~0.02%, the proportion of delayed neutrons is 0.1%, the reproduction coefficient is 0.05%, for uneven energy release and changes in the isotopic composition of the fuel, no assessment was made. The results showed preferential indicators when adding americium oxide to the fuel from the point of view of the evaluation of the reproduction coefficient, the reproduction coefficient. In contrast, the proportion of delayed neutrons worsened. The unevenness of the fuel assembly energy release has not undergone any changes. The neutron spectrum remained identical to the original fuel assembly. As a result, within the simulation, the possibility of burning Am241 in a thermal reactor was confirmed.