An analysis of burnup reactivity credit for reactor RA spent fuel storage

The need for increasing the spent fuel storage capacity has led to the development of validated methods for assessing the reactivity effects associated with fuel burnup. This paper gives an overview of the criticality safety analysis methodology used to investigate the sensitivity of storage system reactivities to changes in fuel burnup. Results representing the validation of the methods are also discussed. As an example of the application of this methodology an analysis of the burnup reactivity credit for the three-dimensional model of the reactor RA spent fuel storage is described.