Design study on PWR-type reduced-moderation light water core; Investigation of core adopting seed-blanket fuel assemblies

Shimada, Shoichiro*; Kugo, Teruhiko ; Okubo, Tsutomu; Iwamura, Takamichi

As a part of the design study on PWR-type Reduced-Moderation Water Reactors (RMWRs), a light water cooled core with the seed-blanket type fuel assemblies has been investigated. An assembly with seed of 13 layers and blanket of 5 layers was selected by optimization calculations. The core was composed with the 163 assemblies. The following results were obtained by burn-up calculations with the MVP-BURN code; The cycle length is 15 months by 3-batch refueling. The discharge burn-up including the inner blanket is about 25 GWd/t. The conversion ratio is about 1.0. The void reactivity coefficient is about -26.1pcm/%void at BOC and -21.7pcm/%void at EOC. Effects of about 10% of MA or about 2 % of FP on core performances were investigated, and they were confirmred within the design margins. Capability of multi-recycling of plutonium was confirmed, using discharged plutonium for 4 cycles, if fissile plutonium of 15.5wt% is used.