Uranium nitride fuels for application in CANDU reactors
2018 (English)In: International Conference on Physics of Reactors, PHYSOR 2018: Reactor Physics Paving the Way Towards More Efficient Systems, Sociedad Nuclear Mexicana, A.C. , 2018, p. 3603-3611Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
The physics of uranium nitride fuels used in CANDU-6 reactors has been assessed by means of full core Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that the application of Unat15N allows for increasing the average residence time of a fuel bundle from 210 to 360 days, as compared to a conventional UnatO2fuel. Whereas a 20% increase in coolant void worth is observed, the total power coefficient is reduced by half, due to a change in sign of the Doppler coefficient. Moreover, thanks to the better thermal conductivity of UN, the margin to fuel melt is raised considerably. Hence, uranium nitride could constitute a more efficient fuel for CANDU reactors, while possibly allowing to extend the grace time for actuation of shut-down during a power transient.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sociedad Nuclear Mexicana, A.C. , 2018. p. 3603-3611
Keywords [en]
CANDU reactors, Reactivity coefficients, Residence time, Uranium nitride, Fuels, Heavy water reactors, Monte Carlo methods, Nitrides, Pavements, Average residence time, CANDU reactor, Coolant void, Fuel bundle, Full-core, Power transient, Total power, Uranium compounds
National Category
Subatomic Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-302067Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85105981150OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-302067DiVA, id: diva2:1598445
Conference
2018 International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Reactor Physics Paving the Way Towards More Efficient Systems, PHYSOR 2018, Cancun, 22-26 April 2018
Note
QC 20210929
2021-09-292021-09-292022-06-25Bibliographically approved