Thermochemical modelling of advanced CANDU reactor fuel.

摘要

With an aging fleet of nuclear generating facilities, the imperative to limit the use of non-renewal fossil fuels and the inevitable need for additional electricity to power Canada's economy, a renaissance in the use of nuclear technology in Canada is at hand. The experience and knowledge of over 40 years of CANDU research, development and operation in Ontario and elsewhere has been applied to a new generation of CANDU, the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR). Improved fuel design allows for an extended burnup, which is a significant improvement, enhancing the safety and the economies of the ACR. The use of a Burnable Neutron Absorber (BNA) material and Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) fuel has created a need to understand better these novel materials and fuel types.;As part of this thesis, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Coulombic Titration (CT) experiments are compared to the BNA and LEU models, respectively. From the analysis of the CT results, a number of improvements are proposed to enhance the LEU model and provide confidence in its application to ACR fuel. A number of applications for the potential use of these models are proposed and discussed.;Keywords: CANDU Fuel, Gibbs Energy Mimimization, Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Fuel, Burnable Neutron Absorber (BNA) Material, Coulometric Titration, X-Ray Diffraction;This thesis documents a work to advance the scientific and technological knowledge of the ACR fuel design with respect to thermodynamic phase stability and fuel oxidation modelling. For the BNA material, a new (BNA) model is created based on the fundamental first principles of Gibbs energy minimization applied to material phase stability. For LEU fuel, the methodology used for the BNA model is applied to the oxidation of irradiated fuel. The pertinent knowledge base for uranium, oxygen and the major fission products is reviewed, updated and integrated to create a model that is applicable to current and future CANDU fuel designs.