Direct reuse of spent nuclear fuel

Abstract

In this paper we proposed a new design for the PWR fuel assembly for direct use of the PWR spent fuel without processing. The PWR spent fuel will be transferred directly (after a certain cooling time) to CANDU reactors which preferably built in the same site to avoid the problem of transportations. The proposed assembly has four zircaloy-4 tubes contains a number of CANDU fuel bundles (7 or 8 bundles per tube) stacked end to end. Each tube has the same inner diameter of that of CANDU pressure tube. The spaces between the tubes contain low enriched UO2 fuel rods and guide tubes. MCNPX code is used for the simulation and calculation of the burnup of the proposed assembly. The bundles after the discharge from the PWR with their materials inventories are burned in a CANDU cell after a certain decay time. The results were compared with reference results and the impact of this new design on the uranium utilization improvement and on the proliferation resistance of plutonium is discussed. The effect of this new design on the power peaking, moderator temperature coefficient of reactivity and CANDU coolant void reactivity are discussed as well.