Burnable poison option for DUPIC fuel

The mechanisms of positive coolant void reactivity of CANDU natural uranium and DUPIC fuel have been studied. The design study of DUPIC fuel was performed using the burnable poison material in the center pin to reduce the coolant void reactivity. The amount of burnable poison was determined such that the prompt inverse period of DUPIC fuel upon full coolant voiding is the same as that of natural uranium fuel at equilibrium burnup. A parametric study on various burnable poisons has shown that natural dysprosium has more merit over other materials because it uniformly controls the void reactivity throughout the burnup with reasonable amount of poison. Additional studies on the option of using scattering or absorber material in the center pin position and the option using variable fuel density were performed. In any case of option using variable fuel density were performed. In any case of options to reduce the void reactivity, it was found that either the discharge burnup and/or the relative linear pin power are sacrificed. A preliminary study was performed for the evaluation of reference DUPIC fuel performance especially represented by Stress Corrosion Cracking(SCC) parameters which is mainly influenced by the refueling operations. For the reference 2-bundle shift refueling scheme, the predicted ramped power and power increment of the reference DUPIC fuel are below the SCC thresholds of CANDU natural uranium fuel. For a 4-bundle shift refueling scheme, the envelopes of element ramped power and power increment upon refueling are 8% and 44% higher than those of a 2-bundle shift refueling scheme on the average, respectively, but still have margins to the failure thresholds of natural uranium fuel. 23 tabs., 25 figs., 20 refs. (Author)