Test Irradiation of Recycled Uranium in Chinese CANDU Reactors

Abstract

This paper presents the feasibility of using recycled uranium (RU) from Pressurized Water Reactors’ (PWR) spent fuel as fuel in Heavy Water CANDU reactors. Together in a four-party partnership, TQNPC, NPIC, CNNFC and AECL have put together a technical case for inserting twenty-four natural uranium equivalent (NUE) bundles into a Chinese Qinshan CANDU reactor for a test irradiation. NUE is a combination of RU and depleted uranium (DU) in such a manner that the NUE fuel will perform identically to natural uranium (NU) fuel.