Nuclear Analysis for Application of Boron Burnable Absorber in the HANARO Fuel Assembly

Development of the HANARO fuel element with burnable absorber was started in the U-Mo fuel development program at HANARO, and the first full core analysis was performed last year. In the analysis, cadmium in the form of CdO was considered as the most promising burnable absorber for the current HANARO element. The U-Mo fuel with CdO was successfully irradiated at the HANARO core, but it was found that the thermodynamic stability of CdO is questionable under the higher temperature condition than the current manufacturing environment. Prior to application of CdO, further studies are required. Traditionally, boron has been used as burnable absorber at the high performance research reactors such as ATR, FRM-II, etc. The power density of HANARO is lower than those reactors, and the residual reactivity effect by boron is not negligible in the core. Basic nuclear analysis for application of boron burnable absorber in the HANARO fuel assembly was performed for getting a better fuel element. The residual reactivity effect can be overcome with replacing the reduced fuel rods into the standard rods. This new fuel design provides lower reactivity swing and lower power peaking. To minimize the residual reactivity effect, a concept of heterogeneous burnable poison within the rod is introduced. The heterogeneous cases give us better results and there is an optimum boundary for the burnable absorber region. This neutronics study was limited to the boron burnable absorber in the current silicide HANARO fuel, other studies including manufacturing study are desirable for application of burnable absorber