Neutronics Studies of Uranium-Bearing Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel for Pressurized Water Reactors

Neutronic analysis of candidate accident-tolerant iron alloy cladding concepts

“…The magnitude of k inf at 627, 1221, and 1420 EFPD for each fuel geometry and cladding type configuration, as shown in Figure 1, was used to estimate the end-of-cycle (EOC) core k  . In doing this, a method similar to the Linear Reactivity Model [11] was developed called the "Equivalent Reactivity Method" [12]. The EOC reactivity for each case was compared to that of a reference case (standard PWR fuel rod with Zircaloy cladding).…”

Progress on matrix SiC processing and properties for fully ceramic microencapsulated fuel form

“…Envisioned applications for this fuel form spans a number of thermal reactors including light water [3][4][5][6][7] and salt-cooled reactors [8]. The method deemed most appropriate and used to date for consolidation of this matrix adheres to the nanoinfiltration transient eutectic-forming (NITE) SiC fabrication strategy [9][10][11].…”

Assembly Design of Pressurized Water Reactors with Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel

“…An indirect estimation of the required enrichment was derived from the fissile content, assuming that a similar fissile load per assembly leads to a similar cycle length. 3,7 At the end of this process (Fig. 8), two geometries were downselected for in-depth assembly analysis: a 9 ϫ 9 assembly with P/D 1.12 and outer diameter of 2.12 cm and an 11 ϫ 11 assembly with P/D 1.18 and outer diameter 1.65 cm.…”

“…Previous studies [5][6][7][8][9] assumed that FCM fuel will be mainly implemented in a conventional 17 ϫ 17 assembly with no change to fuel rod diameter and found that even with uranium enrichment close to 20 wt%, the reactor cycle length would still fall short of current practice values-unless aggressive TRISO designs beyond currently accepted manufacturing and performance limits are considered. 7 This study investigated the core design, neutronics, and thermal hydraulics of a PWR loaded with FCM fuel and sought to optimize the assembly design in order to minimize the enrichment required to reach fuel performance similar to that of conventional fuel.…”

“…7 This study investigated the core design, neutronics, and thermal hydraulics of a PWR loaded with FCM fuel and sought to optimize the assembly design in order to minimize the enrichment required to reach fuel performance similar to that of conventional fuel. In order to assess the feasibility of these designs, neutronics and thermal-hydraulic parameters such as burnup, reactivity coefficients, control rod worth, axial pressure drop, and minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR) were evaluated.…”