EDF Nuclear Power Plants Operating Experience with MOX fuel
- EDF Generation, Tour EDF Part Dieu - 9 rue des Cuirassiers B.P.3181 - 69402 Lyon Cedex 03 (France)
EDF started Plutonium recycling in PWR in 1987 and progressively all the 20 reactors, licensed in using MOX fuel, have been loaded with MOX assemblies. At the origin of MOX introduction, these plants operated at full power in base load and the core management limited the irradiation time of MOX fuel assemblies to 3 annual cycles. Since 1995 all these reactors can operate in load follow mode. Since that time, a large amount of experience has been accumulated. This experience is very positive considering: - Receipt, handling, in core behaviour, pool storage and shipment of MOX fuel; - Operation of the various systems of the plant; - Environment impact; - Radioprotection; - Safety file requirements; - Availability for the grid. In order to reduce the fuel cost and to reach a better adequacy between UO{sub 2} fuel reprocessing flow and plutonium consumption, EDF had decided to improve the core management of MOX plants. This new core management call 'MOX Parity' achieves parity for MOX and UO{sub 2} assemblies in term of discharge burn-up. Compared to the current MOX assembly the Plutonium content is increased from 7,08% to 8,65% (equivalent to natural uranium enriched to respectively 3,25% and 3,7%) and the maximum MOX assembly burn-up moves from 42 to 52 GWd/t. This amount of burn-up is obtained from loading MOX assemblies for one additional annual cycle. Some, but limited, adaptations of the plant are necessary. In addition a new MOX fuel assembly has been designed to comply with the safety criteria taking into account the core management performances. These design improvements are based on the results of an important R and D program including numerous experimental tests and post-irradiated fuel examinations. In particular, envelope conditions compared to MOX Parity neutronic solicitations has been extensively investigated in order to get a full knowledge of the in reactor fuel behavior. Moreover, the operating conditions of the plant have been evaluated in many details and finally no important impact is anticipated. The industrial maturity of plutonium recycling activities is fully demonstrated and a new progress can be done with a complete confidence. The licensing process of 'MOX Parity' core management is in progress and its implementation on the 20 PWR is now expected at mid 2007. (author)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21020993
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2006 International congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'06, Reno - Nevada (United States), 4-8 Jun 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 2 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2006 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'06, 2734 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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