Influence of High-Density Dispersion Fuel Loading on Fuel Plate Temperature in the Benchmark IAEA 10-MW Nuclear Research Reactor

The study examines the influence of high-density, low-enriched uranium (LEU) on the fuel plate temperature of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 10-MW materials testing reactor under steady-state conditions using ANSYS FLUENT software. For this purpose, we used high-density LEU fuels currently under development by the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program, specifically U3Si2 and U-10Mo. To attain the required uranium densities while preserving the high-enriched uranium fuel assembly geometry, a mass fraction of 80.9% was necessary, which corresponded to a 49.07% volume fraction of the dispersed phase. The maximum fuel meat temperatures of the U3Si2 and U-10Mo increased with the uranium density, reflecting variations in the fuel thermal conductivity. For U3Si2, the maximum fuel temperatures were 98.39°C, 99.64°C, and 103.34°C for 4.1 gU/cm3, 4.8 gU/cm3, and 5.66 gU/cm3, respectively.