Progress of the DUPIC Fuel Compatibility Analysis - IV: Fuel Performance

Abstract

This study describes the mechanical compatibility of the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor fuel in Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel when it is loaded into a CANDU reactor. The mechanical compatibility can be assessed for the fuel management, primary heat transport system, fuel channel, and fuel handling system in the reactor core by both experimental and analytic methods. Because the physical dimensions of the DUPIC fuel bundle adopt the CANDU flexible (CANFLEX) fuel bundle design, which has already been demonstrated for a commercial use in CANDU reactors, the experimental compatibility analyses focused on the generation of material property data and the irradiation tests of the DUPIC fuel, which are used for the computational analysis. The intermediate results of the mechanical compatibility analysis have shown that the integrity of the DUPIC fuel is mostly maintained under the high-power and high-burnup conditions even though some material properties, such as the thermal conductivity, are a little lower compared to the uranium fuel. However, it is required that the current DUPIC fuel design be changed slightly to accommodate the high internal pressure of the fuel element. It is also strongly recommended that more irradiation tests of the DUPIC fuel be performed to accumulate a database for the demonstration of the DUPIC fuel performance in the CANDU reactor.