ATRIUM 10: ten years of operational experience

摘要

By April 2002, more than 47,000 Framatome ANP BWR fuel assemblies containing a total of 3.3 million fuel rods have been irradiated in a total of 52 plants located in Europe, USA and Asia. This BWR fuel operating experience encompasses fuel assemblies with fuel rod arrays ranging from 6 x 6 to 10 x 10. Around 850,000 Framatome ANP BWR fuel rods are currently in service in 29 plants worldwide, almost exclusively in fuel assemblies of the ATRIUM family. The frequent switch to more advanced fuel assembly designs with different rod arrays - which always has been a typical feature of BWR plants - has resulted in earlier fuel designs being successively replaced. This continuous development focused on enhancing fuel economics through increased burnup potentials, large operating margins, and a high degree of operational flexibility. Today's optimum was achieved in the spring of 2001, when four ATRIUM 10 lead fuel assemblies reached their target assembly burnups of 71 MWd/kgU after eight operating cycles. So far, ATRIUM 10 fuel assemblies have been supplied to a total of 20 plants in Europe, Asia, and the US giving Framatome ANP operating experience with nearly 4700 fuel assemblies of this type and, thanks to ongoing supply contracts, the experience will continue to be enhanced significantly. This applies particularly to European BWRs that have been supplied almost exclusively with ATRIUM 10 fuel assemblies since 1998. In the US and Taiwan, all BWR reload fuel currently being delivered is of the ATRIUM 10 design.