Abstract
In order to burn plutonium in PWRs, an innovative assembly has been proposed: the Advanced Plutonium fuel Assembly (APA) concept. This heterogeneous assembly is based on the standard 17x17 geometry, replacing 144 classical UO 2 fuel rods by 36 large fuel rods containing plutonium in an inert matrix. To accommodate the high power and burn-up, a thin annular geometry has been proposed. However, the design of such assembly is a challenge due to the highly innovative fuel rod concept. Regarding the fabrication, different processes are under investigation: concentric claddings with annular ceramic pellets (cercer), ceramic/metal fuel (cermet) metallurgically bonded to the claddings, vibrocompacted fuel. This paper focuses on thermomechanical studies performed for the two first concepts, in view of a future selection between the different processes. The analysis concerns temperature profiles, fuel-cladding gap evolutions and cladding buckling risk. Regarding those parameters, the conclusion is that the cermet matrix presents satisfactory conditions: operating at very low temperatures and no buckling risk.
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