DUPIC Fuel Performance From Reactor Physics Viewpoint

Abstract

A preliminary study was performed for the evaluation of Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) parameters of nominal DUPIC fuel in CANDU reactor. For the reference 2-bundle shift refueling scheme, the predicted ramped power and power increase of the 43-element DUPIC fuel in the equilibrium core are below the SCC thresholds of CANDU natural uranium fuel. For 4-bundleshift refueling scheme, the envelope of element ramped power and power increase upon refueling are 8% and 44% higher than those of 2-bundle shift refueling scheme on the average, respectively,and both schemes are not expected to cause SCC failures.