Stepwise evolution of core and fuel design toward a sustainable fuel cycle with FLWR

Uchikawa, Sadao

An advanced LWR with hard neutron spectrum, named FLWR, aims at efficient and flexible utilization of nuclear resources by evolving its fuel assembly design under the same core configuration, mainly corresponding to available fuel cycle technologies and related infrastructures. The paper summarizes an evolution process of the FLWR fuel assembly design toward a sustainable fuel cycle by dividing the reactor operation into three stages, that is, the one based on the current LWR MOX fuel cycle infrastructure such as reprocessing of UO spent fuel and fabrication of MOX fuel, the one for transitioning from the LWR fuel cycle to the FR fuel cycle, and the one based on the FR fuel cycle infrastructures such as MOX spent fuel reprocessing.