Evaluation of Fuel Burn-up and Radioactivity Inventory in the 2 MW TRIGA-Plate Bandung Research Reactor

Currently plate-type fuels are planned to use in the research reactor TRIGA-2000 Bandung, Indonesia (further called as TRIGA-Plate reactor). Plate type fuel consists of enriched uranium sandwiched between metal cladding. Plate-type fuel is used in some research reactors to obtain high neutron flux and is used to study material irradiation or isotope production. For the purpose of Safety Analysis Report (SAR) on the fuel-type modification plan of TRIGA-2000 Bandung, it is necessary to calculate radioactivity inventory from the reactor core under operating conditions. The radioactivity inventory of materials irradiated in a reactor depends on the initial material composition at the BOC, burn-up history from BOC to EOC and the power peaking factor. The purpose of the present work is to evaluate the fuel burn-up and radioactivity inventory in fuel materials of TRIGA-Plate research reactor. The mass of U-235 consumed and the mass of Pu-239 and Th-232 produced are also evaluated. The calculation results obtained using ORIGEN2 code are: the mass of U-235 consumed is 1.40E+02 gram; while the mass of Pu-239 produced is 1.36E+00 gram and Th-232 produced is 1.03E-06 gram. The largest radioactivity inventories of the reactor at the EOC sequentially are: Kr group is about 2.29E+02 Ci; for group I is 7.77E+03 Ci and for groups Cs is 1.92E+02Ci.