Advanced fuel elements for passive pressure tube light water reactors

This paper focuses on the development of advanced fuel elements for innovative pressure tube light water reactors. Considerations and constraints that affect the design process and various possible options are discussed. The two most promising fuel designs, which can survive a loss-of-coolant accident without primary coolant replenishment, while having sufficient margins to fuel design limits, are proposed, described and evaluated. It is demonstrated that this key objective can be achieved, provided that reliable SiC cladding or coating, which can withstand operating and accident conditions without failure, can be manufactured. Recent advances in ceramic coating technologies and experimental tests of coated specimens indicate that the attainment of this goal is feasible.     

Plutonium isotopic composition of high burnup spent fuel discharged from light water reactors

The isotopic composition and amount of plutonium (Pu) in spent fuel from a high burnup boiling water reactor (HB-BWR) and a high burnup pressurized water reactor (HB-PWR), each with an average discharge burnup of 70 GWd/t, were estimated, in order to evaluate fast breeder reactor (FBR) fuel composition in the transition period from LWRs to FBRs.     

Plutonium recycle in heavy water-power reactors

The performance of a heavy-water reactor using U²³⁸ with an equilibrium concentration of U²³⁹ Pu²⁴⁰ Pu²⁴¹ nuclei and small additions of U²³⁵ and with natural and depleted uranium make-up is discussed. A portion of the spent fuel discharged from the reactor is cleaned up of fission fragments and recycled to the reactor. Another (smaller) portion is withdrawn from the cycle after plutonium has been extracted and is replaced in the core by natural uranium.Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 26–29, January, 1966