Candu Nuclear Fuel Performance Improving By Using The Advanced 52-Element Bundle Design

The paper evaluates neutronic performances of a 52 elements advanced CANDU fuel bundle design with Natural Uranium (NU). Comparative lattice calculations have been performed both for 52 element bundle and 37-rods standard fuel bundle designs. The two bundle designs are referred as 52-NAT and 37-NAT, respectively. The lattice results allow for the ring power distribution analysis and they showed that inside of the outermost 52-NAT elements a lower thermal power is generated than in the case of the standard 37-NAT fuel bundle. Also, the outer element linear powers of the 52-NAT bundle design are lower than corresponding values supplied by the 37-rods standard bundle design. Results from time-average core calculations are also presented and these show a good agreement with the lattice ones. The paper's conclusions underline the burnup and operation improvements brought by the 52-element bundle design. (author).