A Compact Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor with an Ultra-Long Fuel Cycle

Table 1

Summary of EM² baseline core performance.

Reactor power	500 MW thermal
Fuel material	Uranium carbide
Clad/structure material	Silicon carbide
Coolant material	Helium
Cycle length	32 years
Average fissile content	6.1 wt%
Fuel loading
Uranium	42.8 t
^235U	2.6 t
Fuel discharged
Heavy metal	36.7 t
Uranium consumed	23%
Excess reactivity	2.0%  δk
Peak/average burnup	285/135 GWd/t
Peak/average power density	165/58 W/cm^3
Peak/average fast fluence (>0.1 MeV)	7.9/3.7 × 10^23 n/cm^2
System pressure	13.3 MPa
System pressure (depressurized)	0.45 MPa
Core pressure drop	25 kPa
Core inlet temperature	549°C
Core outlet temperature	850°C