The Nuclear Futures Institute are very pleased to announce the publication of a new research paper written by PhD Student Mustafa Bolukbasi, co-authored by Simon Middleburgh, Marcus Dahlfors, and Professor Bill Lee. The paper is titled “Performance and economic assessment of enriched gadolinia burnable absorbers.”
This paper was published in the Progress in Nuclear Energy journal, Volume 137, July 2021.
Mustafa’s study modelled fuel assemblies using gadolinium oxide enriched with 157Gd using Monte Carlo particle transport methods and compared to fuels with a natural Gd-based absorber.
In his study, it has been shown that the use of e-Gd2O3 exhibits similar reactivity properties as n-Gd2O3 and that residual reactivity caused by n-Gd2O3 can be eliminated after the depletion of the main neutron-absorbing isotopes.
The paper makes an estimation of the financial and economic effects of the incorporation of enriched Gd isotopes into nuclear fuel and was based on the AP-1000 PWR reactor designed by Westinghouse Electric Company.
The outcomes of Mustafa’s study mainly highlight the potential economic and performance benefits that moving towards isotopically enriched Gd2O3 can provide.