Fuel Recycling in CANDU Reactors

Abstract

Most CANDU reactors are presently refuelled in a very simple way, that is by pushing a certain number of new fuel bundles into one end of a fuel channel and by pulling out the same number of used bundles from the other end.

Gentilly-1 is an exception where partially burned up discharged fuel is brought back into core again in low powered positions. Gentilly-1 is refuelled by replacing all the fuel in a channel with a preassembled string made up with new and recycled fuel. However this possibility is not fully exploited in the sens that Gentilly-1 fuelling scheme is still more like the traditional 8-bundle shift.

Fuel recycling in CMU reactors is investigated in this paper from the points of view of fuel economy, fuel handling and operating margin.