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U.S. Department of Energy
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Development and demonstration of an advanced extended-burnup fuel assembly design incorporating urania-gadolinia. First semi-annual progress report, March-September, 1981. [PWR]

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5278084
The Babcock and Wilcox Company, Duke Power Company, and the U.S. Department of Energy are participating in a program to develop and demonstrate an advanced fuel assembly design incorporating UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ for extended burnup in pressurized water reactors. In addition to the UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ burnable poison-fuel mixture, the advanced design incorporates annular pellets, annealed guide tubes, Zircaloy grids, and removable upper end fittings to improve fuel economy and increase assembly burnup capabilities. This report, covering March through September 1981, is the first semi-annual progress report for the program. The physics model that will be used to design and license the UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ assemblies has been developed and verified against data from the irradiation of previous demonstration UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ assemblies. The assembly radial powers predicted using this model agree to within 1% of those actually measured in the demonstration assemblies. Further, a process to fabricate the UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ fuel has been developed.
Research Organization:
Babcock and Wilcox Co., Alliance, OH (USA). Contract Research Div.; Duke Power Co., Charlotte, NC (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-78ET34212
OSTI ID:
5278084
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/34212-34; BAW-1681-1; ON: DE82019127
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English