Status of the Demonstration Irradiation Program of the New Fuel Bundle CANFLEX-NU in Korea

Abstract

In the late part of 1999, the Korea Electric Power Corporation has initiated a program to use CANFLEX-NU(Natural Uranium) fuel in the Wolsong Generating Station(WGS) - #1 which has been operating since 1983, because the CANFLEX could be used to recover some of a CANDU heat transport system operation margins that had decreased due to ageing. The Korea Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has recognized the successful demonstration irradiation of 24 CANFLEX bundles at the Pt. Lepreau Generating Station in Canada, as final verification of the CANFLEX design in preparation for full core conversion. Therefore, MOST has pushed and gave a financial support to a KEPRl/KAERl Joint Industrialization Program of CANFLEX-NU Fuel, which will be conducted for 3 years from 2000 November, to validate CANFLEX-NU fuel bundle performance in direct conditions of relevance under the Korean licensing requirements as well as to evaluate the fuel fabrication capability, and to produce a safety analysis report for the full-core implementation. The economic benefits of CANFLEX-NU fuel are directly dependent on the thermalhydraulic performance. Switching from the existing 37-element fuel to the CANFLEX fuel will be largely driven by the economic benefits to be realized. Showing a positive result in the economic evaluation as well as successfully demonstrating the CANFLEX fuel irradiation in WGS-#1, the full-core implementation of the fuel at the WGS-#1 in Korea will proceed by starting the licensing process at around 2003 April because the safety report for the full-core conversion will be ready by 2003 March. This paper describes the status of CANFLEX-NU fuel industrialization program in Korea, as well as the fuel design features. It summarizes the plan of CANFLEX-NU fuel demonstration irradiation at the WGS- #1 in Korea and the status of documentation for the demonstration irradiation as well as for the CANFLEX-NU full-core implementation.