Neutronic Evaluation of Light Water Reactor-Based Small Modular Reactor With Transuranic Fuel and Comparison With Different Core Configuration of UO2 and Mixed Oxide Fuel

Abstract Neutronic and burnup assessment of a light water reactor (LWR)-based small modular reactor (SMR) core with transuranic fuel (TRU) was carried out and compared with UO2 fuel and mixed oxide fuel (MOX) for different core composition and configurations. Eight different cores were modeled by changing the fuel composition and loading pattern of four different fuel assemblies, namely, UO2, MOX, TRU, and annular UO2 fuel and simulated in open-source Monte Carlo code OpenMC. The radial neutron flux distribution and maximum to average flux ratio were studied. The lowest flux ratio was found in annular-2 models, whereas TRU models showed the highest value. The effect of enrichment, fuel burnup, moderator to fuel ratio, and soluble boron concentration on effective multiplication factor…