Use of carbon-coated particle fuels in PWR assemblies
- Kyung Hee Univ. (Korea, Republic of)
- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)
Pyro-carbon-coated fuel particles used in modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor fuel rods have the potential to enhance fuel rod safety when they are packed in pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel pellets. A fuel assembly design concept with new fuel pellets was introduced and its nuclear feasibility on PWR application was shown in Ref. 1 under limited conditions. In this paper, a full-core analysis was performed for a partly loaded core with carbon-coated particle fuel assemblies. Compared with conventional oxide fuels, one of the major benefits of this fuel is larger thermal conductivity due to the carbon matrix between UCO particles. In Ref. 1, a CASMO calculation was done for the homogenized pellets at the nominal fuel temperature under Ulchin 3 and 4 operating conditions. We calculated a detailed temperature distribution of the fuel pellet in this study based on temperature-dependent conductivity data for the heterogeneous pellets consisting of UCO and graphite. The average fuel temperature at hot-full-power conditions was reduced from 710 to 454{degrees}C of conventional oxide fuel. Recalculated k-infinite of the fuel assembly with the fuel temperature of 454{degrees}C is changed by only 0.00822, even though a much larger thermal margin is expected.
- OSTI ID:
- 552600
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-971125--
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 77; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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