Review and comparison of neutronic parameters of VVER-1200 and PWR fuel assemblies with different burnable absorbers

Burnable absorbers offer a promising approach for achieving safe and efficient energy generation through the control of fission reactions within nuclear reactors. In this study, the neutronic parameters of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and Water-Water Energy Reactor-1200 (VVER-1200) fuel assemblies were examined and compared using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code with different burnable absorbers. To investigate the impact of burnable absorber concentration on neutronic parameters in the absence of control rods, four different scenarios were developed using Integral Burnable Absorber (IBA) and Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber (IFBA) rods. The study also investigated the influence of the presence of IBA, IFBA and HYBRID rods, as well as increasing assembly temperature, on the effective multiplication factor k_eff values for PWR and VVER-1200 fuel assemblies. The criticality level of the PWR using standard fuel consistently surpasses that of the VVER-1200 reactor at all temperature conditions. Nevertheless, the installation of a burnable absorber leads to elevated k_eff values for VVER fuel. Additionally, the study compared the k_eff values, actinide isotope masses, and burnup values that changed with increasing irradiation time in both PWR and VVER-1200 fuel assemblies.