RECENT ACTIVITIES REGARDING THE USE OF BURNUP CREDIT IN FRANCE

摘要

Burnup credit refers to the concept of taking credit for the reduction in reactivity due to irradiation of nuclear fuel. A working group, bringing together several French nuclear companies and institutions (AREVA, CEA, EDF and IRSN), was created in 1997 to analyze different propositions to introduce a limited number of fission products together with a more realistic axial burnup profile into the criticality safety studies for the nuclear fuel cycle. Initially, the discussions of the working group focused on PWR UOX fuel. The work and accomplishments performed by this working group on burnup credit regarding PWR UOX fuel assemblies has been presented in various publications. This paper gives an outlook of the French working group on burnup credit activities afterwards. These activities relate to industrial applications of burnup credit for PWR UOX fuel, burnup credit implementation for PWR MOX fuel allowing the plutonium recycling in French PWRs, as well as applications for BWR UOX fuel since it may be transported, stored and reprocessed in France.