Burnup credit using actinides only for PWR spent nuclear fuel packages

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:225422

Lancaster, D B ^[1]; Lake, W H ^[2]

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1. TRW Environmental Safety Systems, Vienna, VA (United States)
2. Department of Energy, Washington, DC (United States)

The methodology submitted on May 31, 1995, to the NRC for performing and applying nuclear criticality safety calculations, for PWR spent nuclear fuel (SNF) packages with actinide-only burnup credit, is briefly described. The changes in the U-234, U-235, U-236, U-238, Pu-238, Pu-239, Pu-240, Pu-241, Pu-242, and Am-241 concentration with burnup are used in burnup credit criticality analyses. No credit for fission product neutron absorbers is taken. The methodology consists of five major steps. (1) Validate a computer code system to calculate isotopic concentrations of SNF created during burnup in the reactor core and subsequent decay. (2) Validate a computer code system to predict the subcritical multiplication factor, k{sub eff}, of a spent nuclear fuel package. (3) Establish bounding conditions for the isotopic concentration and criticality calculations. (4) Use the validated codes and bounding conditions to generate loading criteria (burnup credit loading curves). (5) Verify that SNF assemblies meet the package loading criteria and confirm proper assembly selection prior to loading. Each step is described for use with any computer code system. The method is demonstrated with the SCALE 4.2 computer code package using 27BURNUPLIB cross sections.

• OSTI ID: 225422
• Report Number(s): CONF-950787--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
42 ENGINEERING
ACTINIDES
AMERICIUM 241
BURNUP
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
ISOTOPE RATIO
PLUTONIUM 238
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 240
PLUTONIUM 241
PLUTONIUM 242
PWR TYPE REACTORS
SAFETY ANALYSIS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUELS
TRANSPORT
URANIUM 234
URANIUM 235
URANIUM 236
URANIUM 238
US NRC