Assessment of Low Enriched Uranium Fueled Core Configurations for the Versatile Test Reactor

摘要

The reference design for the VTR core configuration uses reactor-grade plutonium as fissile material in a U-Pu-10Zr fuel alloy with 5% enriched LEU. This combination of design options allows achieving a peak fast neutron flux greater than 4×10~(15) n/cm~2-s enabling high-quality and large volumes of irradiation testing. Due to the considerations surrounding availability of plutonium material, an alternative core design with low-enriched uranium (LEU) was investigated.