A 61 -Element Fuel Design (HAC) for Very High Burnups

Abstract

To meet the economic and safety specifications of Electric Power Development Company Limited (EPDC), Japan, a new fuel bundle is being designed for a Highly Advanced Core (HAC)CANDU* reactor. The design core-average burnup is 40 GW.d/tU, which is about five times the burnup of current CANDU 6 reactors. With the proposed new fuel design, the void reactivity of the HAC reactor is essentially zero. From evaluations of fourteen potential bundle designs, a 6 1-element bundle has been selected for further development and assessment. The bundle contains enriched uranium, depleted uranium, and burnable poison. The bundle is sized to fit in the current CANDU 6 pressure tubes. The bundle's performance has been assessed from the perspectives of corrosion, vibration, fretting, fatigue, and buckling. Overall, the HAC 61-element bundle appears promising, and no serious feasibility issue has been uncovered.