Abstract
The main role of the dissolver is to dissolve sheared short sections of the spent fuel assembly. During the dissolution process, there is the situation where solid fuel coexists with and randomly distributed in the solution. Generally, the optimal moderation grid array is used as the bounding model in the criticality safety analysis, which has a considerable conservative margin. Based on a hypothetic dissolver equipment, this paper studies the effect of the random distribution of the solid fuel in the dissolver. Sensitivity analysis is carried out on the random distribution states, fuel composition, solid fuel volume proportion and radii of fuel particles. According to the results of sensitivity analysis, the suggestion for criticality safety analysis model of dissolver is given. The research on the effect of the random distribution of the solid fuel in the dissolver provides a reference for the optimization of the criticality safety analysis model of the dissolver, which can be referred in the subsequent criticality safety analysis of the dissolver to increase the processing capacity of the dissolver and improve the dissolver economy on the premise of ensuring safety.
