Effects of the burnable poison heterogeneity on the long term control of excess of reactivity

According to the different geometry shape, the theory of black burnable particles predicts that the evolution of the poison macroscopic absorption cross section is exponentially, quadratic or linear when the burnable poison is displaced in homogeneous distribution, microspheres or needlecylinders heterogeneous distributions, respectively. In the present studies, we took advantage of the Monte Carlo Continuous Energy Burnup Code MCB to verify the black burnable particles theory on the Gas Turbine – Modular Helium Reactor fuelled by military plutonium at the year the fuel reaches the equilibrium composition; we investigated 8 different burnable poisons, B, Cd, Er, Eu, Gd, Dy, Hf and Sm, in three different geometry configurations and we have found that the numerical results qualitatively match the theory predictions when burnable poisons are disposed in small particles.