(POS-04) Establishment of a spent nuclear fuel composition database for i-SMR safeguards and proliferation resistance analysis based on this database

Seung Min Woo – Assistant professor, Kyung Hee University

Worldwide, the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) is a major focus of the nuclear industry. In addition, Republic of Korea is developing innovative SMR, called “i-SMR”. The i-SMR model is currently preparing for standard design approval and includes innovative features such as multi-module design and load follow-up operation, which is expected to require different safeguards from existing conventional reactors. For example, load-following operations may result in variations in the discharging of spenf fuel and burnup, leading to spent nuclear fuel with diverse compositions compared to conventional reactors.
So, it is necessary to prepare the composition of spent nuclear fuel in the design process. In this study, a database for the spent nuclear fuel composition of i-SMR, designed for safeguards was established and utilized for the evaluation of proliferation resistance. i-SMR has not yet received standard design approval, but the concept and conceptual design have been developed. So, in this study, i-SMR core modeling was performed based on the information released by KEPCO and KHNP and used MCNP 6.2 code for modeling and simulation.The material composition of Spent nuclear fuel depends on three main factors: initial enrichment of fuel, cooling time, and burnup. In this study, considering these three factors, we established a database of Spent nuclear fuel composition. Considering the use of HALEU and load follow-up operations, we have diversified spent nuclear fuel composition data cases.
Additionally, proliferation resistance assessment was performed using data from the DB to evaluate the nuclear non-proliferation of the new reactor, i-SMR. The evaluation was performed using the Figure-of-Merit(FOM) methodology and the difference in non-proliferation with increasing fuel enrichment and load follow-up operations was analyzed.
This study suggests the importance of safeguards-by-design(SBD) for Safeguards and non-proliferation of i-SMR, and the developed DB will be used as basic data for regulatory response.