Neutronics and safety studies of a CAPRA uranium free core

This paper examines the potential of Fast Reactors as Pu burners using an innovative uranium free core and studies such a core's ability to accept degraded Pu qualities. Results from fuel management, physics and transient analysis studies for this core are presented. High burn-up, typical of a Pu without U core, required the determination of a refuelling scheme with reduced power differences between adjacent subassemblies to avoid thermal striping in above core structures. The physics studies used the optimum refuelling scheme. Transient analysis studies investigated the acceptable range of Pu quality that the PuN core can accommodate. This work was carried out as part of the CAPRA project and was sponsored by BNFL. (author)