Core burnup calculation and accidents analyses of a pressurized water reactor partially loaded with rock-like oxide fuel

A rock-like oxide (ROX) fuel – light water reactor (LWR) burning system has been studied for efficient plutonium transmutation. For the improvement of small negative reactivity coefficients and severe transient behaviors of ROX fueled LWRs, a partial loading core of ROX fuel assemblies with conventional UO2 assemblies was considered. As a result, although the reactivity coefficients could be improved, the power peaking tends to be large in this heterogeneous core configuration. The reactivity initiated accident (RIA) and loss of coolant accident (LOCA) behaviors were not sufficiently improved. In order to reduce the power peaking, the fuel composition and the assembly design of the ROX fuel were modified. Firstly, erbium burnable poison was added as Er2O3 in the ROX fuel to reduce the burnup reactivity swing. Then pin-by-pin Pu enrichment and Er content distributions within the ROX fuel assembly were considered. In addition, the Er content distribution was also considered in the axial direction of the ROX fuel pin. With these modifications, a power peaking factor even lower than the one in a conventional UO2 fueled core can be obtained. The RIA and LOCA analyses of the modified core have also shown the comparable transient behaviors of ROX partial loading core to those of the UO2 core.