NEUTRONICS STUDIES OF URANIUM-BASED FULLY CERAMIC MICRO-ENCAPSULATED FUEL FOR PWRs
- ORNL
This study evaluates the core neutronics and fuel cycle characteristics that result from employing uranium-based fully ceramic micro-encapsulated (FCM) fuel in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). Specific PWR bundle designs with FCM fuel have been developed, which by virtue of their TRISO particle based elements, are expected to safely reach higher fuel burnups while also increasing the tolerance to fuel failures. The SCALE 6.1 code package, developed and maintained at ORNL, was the primary software employed to model these designs. Analysis was performed using the SCALE double-heterogeneous (DH) fuel modeling capabilities. For cases evaluated with the NESTLE full-core three-dimensional nodal simulator, because the feature to perform DH lattice physics branches with the SCALE/TRITON sequence is not yet available, the Reactivity-Equivalent Physical Transformation (RPT) method was used as workaround to support the full core analyses. As part of the fuel assembly design evaluations, fresh feed lattices were modeled to analyze the within-assembly pin power peaking. Also, a color-set array of assemblies was constructed to evaluate power peaking and power sharing between a once-burned and a fresh feed assembly. In addition, a parametric study was performed by varying the various TRISO particle design features; such as kernel diameter, coating layer thicknesses, and packing fractions. Also, other features such as the selection of matrix material (SiC, Zirconium) and fuel rod dimensions were perturbed. After evaluating different uranium-based fuels, the higher physical density of uranium mononitride (UN) proved to be favorable, as the parametric studies showed that the FCM particle fuel design will need roughly 12% additional fissile material in comparison to that of a standard UO2 rod in order to match the lifetime of an 18-month PWR cycle. Neutronically, the FCM fuel designs evaluated maintain acceptable design features in the areas of fuel lifetime, temperature coefficients of reactivity, as well as pin cell and assembly peaking factors. Key Words: FCM, TRISO, Uranium Mononitride, PWR
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1039615
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: PHYSOR 2012 Advances in Reactor Physics Linking Research, Industry, and Education, Knoxville, TN, USA, 20120415, 20120420
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
CERAMICS
COATINGS
DESIGN
DIMENSIONS
EDUCATION
FISSILE MATERIALS
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL RODS
KERNELS
LIFETIME
MATRIX MATERIALS
PHYSICS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR PHYSICS
TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT
TOLERANCE
TRANSFORMATIONS
URANIUM
ZIRCONIUM