Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor Fuel: Integrity, Performance and Advanced Concepts. Proceedings of the Technical Meetings held in Bucharest, 24-27 September 2012, and in Mumbai, 8-11 May 2013

Seven Member States have operating pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), and some of them are also planning new reactors of this type. The current type of PHWR uses natural uranium as the fuel and has an average burnup of 7000 MWd/t (megawatt days per metric tonne). To make these reactors economically competitive with other reactor types, the discharge burnup of PHWR fuel will need to be increased without affecting the integrity of the fuel pin and bundle. A significant increase in the discharge burnup of fuel is possible with the use of advanced fuel cycles in PHWRs. The advanced fuels can be slightly enriched uranium, reprocessed uranium from light water reactors, mixed oxide or thorium based fuels. At the same time, substantial savings in natural uranium resources can also be achieved through the possible extension of the discharge burnup of advanced fuels used in PHWRs without changing reactor hardware. Following the recommendation of the Technical Working Group on Fuel Performance and Technology, two technical meetings were held: Technical Meeting on Fuel Integrity during Normal Operation and Accident Conditions in PHWRs, 24–27 September 2012, Bucharest, Romania; and Technical Meeting on Advanced Fuel Cycles in PHWRs, 8–11 April 2013, Mumbai, India. Their objective was to update information on the performance of PHWR fuels, the status and trends in the use of advanced fuels in PHWRs and the technical readiness for the deployment of such fuel cycles in these types of reactor. This publication contains the proceedings of the two technical meetings, including a record of the discussions held during the various technical sessions