Comparative analysis of preliminary design core of TRIGA Bandung using fuel element plate MTR in Indonesia

TRIGA Bandung is a research nuclear reactor owned by Indonesia, located in Bandung with a power of 2 MWth. Nuclear research reactor TRIGA Bandung is used as a center for applied research and development in the field of application of the nuclear technologies. TRIGA Bandung is currently still using a cylindrical fuel element, this raises a new problem - the limited number of existing fuel element. The purpose of this research is the development of the preliminary core design of a nuclear research reactor TRIGA Bandung using fuel element plate MTR. The research method is modeling and simulation the preliminary design core of nuclear research reactor TRIGA Bandung using comparative method of porous media and non-porous media with CFD code. This research shows the velocity flow and temperature distribution and the influence of pressure from the comparison method of k-ε standard model and porous media model at the preliminary design in the core area of TRIGA Bandung research reactor with fuel element plate MTR.