Advanced boiling water reactor safety analysis for MOX fuel
- GE, San Jose, CA (United States)
General Electric Company`s (GE`s) Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) has been approved for operation in Japan, and the final design approval (FDA) by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled for mid-1994. One possible utilization of the ABWR would be to operate with mixed oxide (MOX) fuel with the plutonium made available from the U.S. weapons program. A safety evaluation of the ABWR operating with a full MOX core was performed as part of a GE study to determine the capability of the ABWR to disposition weapons grade plutonium to typical reactor spent fuel. All design limits were shown to be satisfied. This paper discusses the most limiting conditions established in that safety evaluation: transients and stability. The ABWR was designed to utilize either urania or plutonia fuel. Therefore, available analyses for the ABWR, including the standard safety analysis report (SSAR), were available for guidance in conducting the study. GE evaluated the entire spectrum of events in nuclear safety and operational analysis areas to establish the most limiting or design basis events when using MOX fuel. The events evaluated include anticipated operational occurrences, abnormal transients, postulated accidents of low probability, and hypothetical events of extremely low probability [e.g., an anticipated transient without scram (ATWS)]. The majority of the licensing events such as ATWS and vessel overpressure analyses have significant margin to licensing and design limits and are not adversely impacted by the use of MOX fuel. Other events such as the accident analyses (e.g., rod drop, loss-of-coolant accident) are also not impacted by MOX fuel because of the ABWR design features (e.g., fine motion control rod drives and no external recirculation piping). The areas most affected by MOX fuel were the ABWR transients and stability analyses.
- OSTI ID:
- 89157
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941102-; ISSN 0003-018X; TRN: 95:004215-0231
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 71; Conference: Winter meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), Washington, DC (United States), 13-18 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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