JMOX Fuel Assembly Design Equivalent to Enriched Uranium Fuel for BWR

摘要

The benefits of reprocessing are still being debated. However, one clearly option should reprocessing be used, is the principle of reducing the number of depleted fuel assemblies and the reactor-grade plutonium inventory. Here we propose a new mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assembly design for a BWR that will meet these criteria better than those proposed in the past. This design is based on increasing the moderation ratio in the assembly and then adjusting the ratio between equivalent fissile plutonium and uranium 235 to obtain maximum performance. In addition, this fuel assembly has the advantage that it reduces the impact of the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel on the reactivity control systems. In this paper, the design of this fuel assembly and the mixed core are discussed. Also the performance of the MOX fuel assembly in the mixed fuel core is presented, and comparisons are made between this core and the full uranium core.