Over the past four decades, nuclear reactor fuel has undergone significant research and development and has been improved to the point where it can be safely and reliably irradiated in conventional power reactors up to 65 GWd/tU. For example, a thin layer of Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber (IFBA) or a smaller number of Gadolinia rods may be used to control reactivity during the fuel cycle due to their high absorption cross section for thermal neutrons. The current PWR fuel design includes various types of burnable absorbers (discrete and integral) that maintain reactor performance during the 18-month fuel cycle length. Higher fuel enrichment is also important in the design of such a PWR core and requires a large quantity of Burnable Poison (BP) to reduce excess reactivity during the fuel cycle and maintain the fuel and moderator coefficients and power peaking factors within safe limits. One strategy to minimize the concentration of soluble boron in the PWR reactor core during the fuel cycle is the use of a burnable absorber. However, excess reactivity at the beginning of the cycle (BOC) requires a higher amount of soluble boron at the EOC. In general, nuclear reactor physicists and core designers aim for a longer reactor fuel cycle, up to 24 months for PWRs. There are several advantages to extending the cycle operation length of a Pressurized Water Reactor, including enhanced fuel utilization, increased energy production per cycle, and reduced amounts of spent fuel. Improvements in fuel assembly design have allowed for better utilization of fuel, resulting in improved performance of the reactor core and an extension of its lifetime. On the other hand, longer fuel cycles also require a higher enrichment of fuel to achieve the desired cycle length. This extension of the reactor fuel cycle length has the benefit of reducing the frequency of fuel refueling over the power plant's operating lifespan (40 to 60 years). However, recent developments have resulted in an extension of the fuel cycle length, with most PWRs now designed to operate at an 18-month cycle length. Ĭonventional Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) were originally designed to operate for up to 12 months at the end of the fuel cycle (EOC). By carefully considering these factors and implementing strategies such as the use of burnable absorbers, it is possible to improve the performance and efficiency of PWRs while also ensuring their safe and reliable operation. These factors include fuel enrichment, reactivity, and the management of spent fuel. However, the design and operation of PWRs are complex, with several factors influencing the performance and efficiency of these systems. Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) are a common type of nuclear power plant that uses the energy released during nuclear fission to generate electricity. The use of nuclear power as a source of electricity is an important contributor to the global energy mix. We also conducted a thorough analysis of the initial cycle for heterogeneous cores to consider more realistic scenarios. Our results indicate that it is possible to extend the fuel cycle to up to 24 months in both the homogeneous and heterogeneous cores. Both the homogeneous and heterogeneous cores were compared with the reference APR-1400 core configuration. We evaluated the behavior of the APR-1400 core by analyzing the effective multiplication factor, flux spectrum, pin power distribution, and radial power profile. The neutronics calculations for the modified APR-1400 core configuration were performed using the Serpent 2.1.31 Monte Carlo reactor physics code. In addition, we also studied the use of selected cladding materials as a replacement for the conventional zircaloy used in the fuel rods. The coating was distributed uniformly throughout the core. To suppress excess reactivity at the beginning of the fuel cycle (BOC), we applied an Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber as a thin coating layer on the outer surface of the fuel pellets. The proposed fuel enrichments for the homogeneous reactor core were 3.0%, 3.5%, 4.0%, 4.5%, and 4.95%. To achieve this, we examined both homogeneous and heterogeneous fuel enrichment designs while maintaining the original fuel geometries of the reactor. Our goal was to explore the possibility of extending the fuel life cycle from 18 to 24 months. In this study, we conducted a neutronics analysis of a soluble-free-boron APR-1400 reactor core.
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