Reactor physics assessment of thick silicon carbide clad PWR fuels

[摘要] High temperature tolerance, chemical stability and low neutron affinity make silicon carbide (SiC) a potential fuel cladding material that may improve the economics and safety of light water reactors (LWRs). ;;Thick;; SiC cladding (0.089 cm) is easier (and thus more economical) to manufacture than SiC of conventional Zircaloy (Zr) cladding thickness (0.057 cm). Five fuel and clad combinations are analyzed: Zr with solid U0 2 pellets, reduced fuel fraction ;;thick;; SiC (Thick SiC) with annular U0 2 pellets, Thick SiC with solid U0 2/BeO pellets, reduced coolant fraction annular fuel with ;;thick;; SiC (Thick SiC RCF), and Thick SiC with solid PuO2/ThO2 pellets. CASMO-4E and SIMULATE-3 have been utilized to model the above in a 193 assembly, 4-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR). A new program, CSpy, has been written to use CASMO/SIMULATE to conduct optimization searches of burnable poison layouts and core reload patterns. All fuel/clad combinations have been modeled using 84 assembly reloads, and Thick SiC clad annular U0 2 has been modeled using both 84 and 64 assembly reloads. Dual Binary Swap (DBS) optimization via three Objective Functions (OFs) has been applied to each clad/fuel/reload # case to produce a single reload enrichment equilibrium core reload map. The OFs have the goals of: minimal peaking, balancing lower peaking with longer cycle length, or maximal cycle length. Results display the tradeoff between minimized peaking and maximized cycle length for each clad/fuel/reload # case. The presented Zr reference cases and Thick SiC RCF cases operate for an 18 month cycle at 3587 MWth using 4.3% and 4.8% enrichment, respectively. A 90% capacity factor was applied to all SiC cladding cases to reflect the challenge to introduction of a new fuel. The Thick SiC clad annular U0 2 (84 reload cores) and Thick SiC U0 2/BeO exhibit similar reactor physics performance but require higher enrichments than 5%. The Thick SiC RCF annular U0 2 fuel cases provide the required cycle length with less than 5% enrichment. The Thick SiC clad PuO2/ThO 2 cores can operate with a Pu% of heavy metal of about 12%, however they may have unacceptable shutdown margins without altering the control rod materials.

[发布机构] Massachusetts Institute of Technology