High Conversion Th–U233 fuel for current generation of PWRs: Part III – Fuel availability and utilization considerations. (January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baldova, D.; Fridman, E.; Shwageraus, E.
• Is Part Of: Annals of nuclear energy. Volume 87:Part 2(2016:Jan.)
• Page Start: 517
• Page End: 526
• Publication Date: 2016-01
• Subjects: High Conversion -- PWR -- Th–U233 fuel -- Seed-blanket -- DYN3D; Nuclear energy -- Periodicals; Nuclear engineering -- Periodicals; 621.4805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2015.10.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-4549

Abstract

Highlights: Reassessment of the neutronic and T–H performance of HC Th–U PWR core. Accounting for the evolution of U isotopic vector with a number of recycle stages. Demonstration of a feasible way of generating U233. Evaluation of potential savings in available nuclear fuel resources. Abstract: In the previous studies, reported in Parts I and II of the paper, a High Conversion (HC) Th–U233 fuel design for current generation of PWRs was proposed and investigated in details on a single fuel assembly and 3D full core levels. One of the important limitations of the previous studies was the reliance on the availability of pure U233 as a fissile driver. In reality however, U233 will always be accompanied by other U isotopes with changing relative fractions until equilibrium is reached. Part III of the paper deals with a number of fuel cycle aspects associated with the use of HC Th–U fuel in PWRs including: (1) More realistic estimation of neutronic characteristics and conversion performance of HC Th–U fuel by accounting for the evolution of U isotopic composition with the number of recycle stages; (2) Reassessment of the HC Th–U PWR core performance through 3D full core coupled neutronic and T–H analysis using the equilibrium Uranium isotopic vector; (3) Demonstration of a feasible way of generating U233; (4) Evaluation of potential savings in available resources that can be achieved by using HC Th–U fuel cycle as compared to the current fuel cycle practices. The obtained results imply that the self-sustainable mode of operation for the proposed HC Th–U fuel assembly design cannot be achieved under the specified fuel cycle length constraint when a realistic U vector is taken into account in the analysis. Nevertheless, the introduction of HC Th–U fuel cycle can notably improve the utilization of available resources.