Transportation and Storage of MOX and LEU Assemblies at the Balakovo NuclearPower Plant

摘要

The VVER-1000-type Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant has been chosen to dispose of the plutonium created as part of Russian weapons program. The plutonium will be converted to mixed-oxide (MOX), fabricated into assemblies and loaded into the reactor. Since the fresh and spent lead test assemblies (LTA) and mission fuel must be stored at the Balakovo reactor site, the configurations resulting from fresh and spent fuel storage and transportation within the plant were studied. This paper reports the results of criticality calculations for fresh MOX fuel assembly storage for one or two equilibrium reloads (20 to 40 assemblies), storage of spent MOX fuel assemblies (20 to 200 assemblies) and transportation of 16 fresh fuel assemblies within the plant.