Comparative Study of UO2 and (Th,U-233)O2 Performance in Small Long-Life PWR Fuel Cell

Abstract

A study was performed comparing the performance of UO2 and (Th,U-233)O2 fuel in small long-life PWR. The neutronic calculation carried out by PIJ module of SRAC2006 was done to a fuel cell in 10 years of operation. The calculation was conducted by varying the enrichment of U-235 in UO2 and U-233 in (Th,U-233)O2 for 1% - 20% and also by varying the fuel volume fraction for 40%, 45%, 50%, 55%, and 60%. The performance was observed by comparing the enrichment needed by each fuel type to gain criticality in 10 years, the infinite multiplication factor (k-inf) value, and the conversion ratio (CR) value. The calculation results showed that 60% fuel volume fraction gave critical conditions with the lowest infinite multiplication factor and highest conversion ratio for both fuel types. While in terms of fissile nuclide enrichment needed, (Th,U-233)O2 had better performance than UO2, because only 5% U-233 was needed in (Th,U-233)O2 while UO2 needed 9% U-235 to gain criticality in 10 years of operation.

Keywords

• Thorium Fuel
• Uranium Fuel
• Pressurized Water Reactor
• Small long-life reactor
• Fuel Cell