Annular seed-blanket thorium fuel core concepts for heavy water moderated reactors

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22257886

Bromley, B. P.; Hyland, B. ^[1]

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1. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River Laboratories, 1 Plant Road, Chalk River, Ontario, K0J 1J0 (Canada)

New reactor concepts to implement thorium-based fuel cycles have been explored to achieve maximum resource utilization. Pressure tube heavy water reactors (PT-HWR) are highly advantageous for implementing the use of thorium-based fuels because of their high neutron economy and on-line re-fuelling capability. The use of heterogeneous seed-blanket core concepts in a PT-HWR where higher-fissile-content seed fuel bundles are physically separate from lower-fissile-content blanket bundles allows more flexibility and control in fuel management to maximize the fissile utilization and conversion of fertile fuel. The lattice concept chosen is a 35-element bundle made with a homogeneous mixture of reactor grade Pu and Th, and with a central zirconia rod to help reduce coolant void reactivity. Several annular heterogeneous seed-blanket core concepts with plutonium-thorium-based fuels in a 700-MWe-class PT-HWR were analyzed, using a once-through thorium (OTT) cycle. Different combinations of seed and blanket fuel were tested to determine the impact on core-average burnup, fissile utilization, power distributions, and other performance parameters. It was found that the various core concepts can achieve a fissile utilization that is up to 30% higher than is currently achieved in a PT-HWR using conventional natural uranium fuel bundles. Up to 67% of the Pu is consumed; up to 43% of the energy is produced from thorium, and up to 363 kg/year of U-233 is produced. Seed-blanket cores with ∼50% content of low-power blanket bundles may require power de-rating (∼58% to 65%) to avoid exceeding maximum limits for peak channel power, bundle power and linear element ratings. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22257886
• Resource Relation: Conference: GLOBAL 2013: International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference - Nuclear Energy at a Crossroads, Salt Lake City, UT (United States), 29 Sep - 3 Oct 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 23 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2013: International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference - Nuclear Energy at a Crossroads| 1633 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
BURNUP
FUEL ELEMENT CLUSTERS
FUEL MANAGEMENT
FUELS
HEAVY WATER
HEAVY WATER MODERATED REACTORS
HOMOGENEOUS MIXTURES
NATURAL URANIUM
NEUTRON FLUX
PLUTONIUM
PRESSURE TUBES
THORIUM
THORIUM CYCLE
URANIUM 233
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES