Radiation Shielding Analysis for Direct Use of Spent Pressurized Water Reactor Fuel in CANDU Reactors (DUPIC)

Abstract

As a part of the compatibility analysis of DUPIC fuel in Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors, the radiation physics calculations have been performed for the CANDU primary shielding system, which was originally designed for natural uranium core. At first, the conventional CANDU primary shield analysis method was validated using the Monte Carlo code MCNP-4B in order to assess the current analysis code system and the cross-section data. The computational benchmark calculation was performed for the CANDU end shield system, which has shown that the conventional method produces results consistent with the reference calculations as far as the total dose rate and total heat deposition rate are concerned. Second, the primary shield system analysis was performed for the DUPIC fuel core based on the power distribution obtained from the time-average core model, and the results have shown that the dose rates and heat deposition rates through the primary shield of the DUPIC fuel core are not much different from those of the natural uranium core because the power levels on the core periphery are similar for both cores. This study has shown that the current primary shield system is adaptable for the DUPIC fuel CANDU core without design modification.