Education and Training Series #86: Analysis of the Reactivity Loss of the Phenix Core Cycles for the Experimental Validation of the DARWIN-FR Code Package

These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. At the end of 2023 they have been viewed by more than 15000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers in more than 80 countries.

These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG). 

The development of future reactors relies on design methodologies using scientific calculation tools (SCT), validated and relevant for quantifying the uncertainty for each neutronic quantity of interest. In the validation process, SCT results are compared with experimental data; however, such reference set is limited for fourth-generation reactors. Sodium-cooled fast reactor technology offers substantial overall feedback, making it an essential asset for assessing current SCTs regarding the development of future reactors. In particular, fuel depletion requires the evolution of isotopic composition within a reactor to be mastered for design/operation trade-offs (irradiation time, mass balance of fissile materials, feedback coefficients, among others). As the local isotopic compositions are not accessible “in real time”, the assessment of SCTs for fuel depletion adopts an indirect approach. Analysis of fuel depletion involves studying its consequence: reactivity swing with irradiation. Substantial experimental data on this phenomenon have been obtained in the PHENIX reactor during the whole operation time (40 years). The current analysis involves an exhaustive reinterpretation of the existing experimental data and depletion calculations using the modern deterministic calculation tools. This comprehensive study of the SFR reactivity loss provides valuable insights, establishing links between experimental data and depletion calculations.