High Performance Fuel Design for Next Generation PWRs 2nd Annual Report

Abstract

The overall objective of this NERI project is to examine the potential for a high performance advanced fuel design for Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), which would accommodate a substantial increase of core power density while simultaneously providing larger thermal margins than current PWRs. This advanced fuel employs an annular geometry that allows internal and external coolant flow and heat removal. The project is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with the collaboration of four industrial partners – Gamma Engineering Corporation, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Framatome ANP DE & S (formerly Duke Engineering & Services), and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The project is organized into five tasks: 1. Task 1 Assess the thermal hydraulic performance of the internally and externally cooled annular fuel to identify the configuration with the highest potential for power density increase while maintaining ample thermal margins, as well as key aspects of mechanical design to ensure that new fuel will not perform outside established hydraulic and mechanical constraints, 2. Task 2 Determine the neutronic performance of the new fuel, and the design that will minimize fuel cycle cost and assures that reactor physics safety parameters are as good or better than those of current PWRs, 3. Task 3 Explore various methods of manufacturing of this advanced fuel, including new innovative fabrication processes to produce annular fuel elements with the required product characteristics, 4. Task 4 Evaluate fuel cycle cost and capital cost implications of high power density to determine the economic viability of the high-performance fuel, and 5. Task 5 Analyze fuel performance of the new UO2 annular fuel obtained by various production technologies including irradiation testing in the MIT reactor.