Basic study on characteristics of some important equilibrium fuel cycles of PWR (original) (raw)

2001, Annals of Nuclear Energy

Equilibrium fuel cycle characteristics of a light water reactor (LWR) with enriched uranium supply were evaluated. In this study, ®ve kinds of fuel cycles of 3000 MWt pressurized water reactor (PWR) were investigated, and a method to determine the uranium enrichment in order to achieve their criticality was presented. The results show that the enrichment decreases considerably with increasing number of con®ned heavy nuclides when U is discharged from the reactor. The required natural uranium was also evaluated for two dierent enrichment processes. The amount of required natural uranium also decreases as well. On the other hand, when U is totally con®ned, the enrichment becomes unacceptably high. Furthermore, Pu and minor actinides (MA) con®ning seem eective to incinerate the discharged radio-toxic wastes. #