Nanofluid application in VMHWR

Ehsan Zarifi¹ Saman Tashakor² Kamran Sepanloo³

1) Reactor Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran (NSTRI), Iran. Email:
2) Department of Nuclear Engineering, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran. Email:
3) Safety and Radiation Research Group, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran (NSTRI), Iran. Email:

Publication : International Conference on Engineering and Applied Science(iceasconf.com)
Abstract :
The main objective of this study is to predict the neutronic behavior of nanofluids as the coolant in the fuel assembly of HPLWR. The High-Performance Light Water Reactor (HPLWR) is the European version of the Supercritical-pressure Water Cooled Reactor (SCWR). Light water reactors at supercritical pressure, being currently under design, are the new generation of nuclear reactors. VMHWR is the new version of HPLWR conceptual design. In this design, the fluid passing through the moderator channels and the assembly gaps (known as a moderator) flows in channels detached from coolants. The variations of neutron cross sections, effective multiplication factor and thermal power have been investigated in different concentrations of nanoparticles in coolant and moderator channel. In this analysis, water-based nanofluids containing various volume fractions of Al2O3, TiO2, CuO and Cu nanoparticles are studied. The neutronic properties of nanofluids with optimum concentration of nanoparticles are calculated using WIMS and CITATION codes. The results show that at low concentrations (less than 1 volume percentage) alumina is the optimum nanoparticle for normal reactor operation.
Keywords : nanofluids neutronics analysis VMHWR WIMS code CITATION code