Design and optimization of an equilibrium reload with MOX fuel with minor actinides

Abstract

In this work the design and optimization of an equilibrium core for a boiling water reactor (BWR), loaded with fuel composed of plutonium and minor actinides (Np, Am and Cm), is presented. The plutonium and minor actinides are obtained from the recycling of the spent fuel of a BWR, and are mixed with depleted uranium obtained from the enrichment tails. The design and optimization of the equilibrium reload is achieved in two steps. In the first step, the fuel assembly is adjusted and the reload pattern is designed, in order to obtain the target cycle length. In order to improve the shutdown margin, two actions were taken: to increase the boron-10 content in the control rods, and to add a burnable absorber (gadolinia) in some fuel rods. In the second step, the reload pattern, obtained in the first step, is optimized to maximize the energy, under the thermal and reactivity margins constraints; a system based on Genetic Algorithms was used in the optimization process. Results show that 5% more energy was obtained with the optimized reload.