Neutronic and Economic Evaluation of Accident Tolerant Fuel Concepts for Light Water Reactors

Download or read book Neutronic and Economic Evaluation of Accident Tolerant Fuel Concepts for Light Water Reactors written by Ian Younker and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accident tolerant fuels (ATF) are designed to mitigate the detrimental interaction betweenzirconium-alloy cladding and high temperature steam found during beyond design basis accident conditions. Two ATF concepts under consideration are: (1) Coating the exterior ofzirconium-alloy cladding with thin ceramics to limit the zirconium available for reaction withhigh-temperature steam; (2) Replacing zirconium alloys with alternative materials possessingslower oxidation kinetics and reduced hydrogen production. ATF concepts are expected to workwithin the design framework of current and future light water reactors, and for that reason theymust match or exceed the neutronic and economic performance of conventional fuel. This studyanalyzed the neutronic performance and estimated the economic impact of the two previouslydescribed ATF concepts for use in both pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling waterreactors (BWRs).For PWRs findings show ceramic coatings should remain 10-30 m thick to limit neutronicpenalty and reduce fuel costs. For alternative cladding materials, SiC features reduced absorptionwhile other alloys (FeCrAl, TZM, Alloy 33 , and HT-9) enhance absorption compared to reference.Parametric analyses conclude reference performance metrics can be met by employing 90-160m thick clad when the clad inner diameter remains constant or 210-280 m when clad outerdiameter remains constant. For cladding thicknesses between minimum and reference valuesenrichment must increase 0.39-1.74% depending on alloy and geometry. Alternative claddingmaterials may reduce nuclear power plant prot up to $623 M over the 40-year plant lifetime.When incorporated into BWRs, these ATF concepts double neutronic penalties due to largerquantities of zirconium alloy.