Burnup and plutonium distribution of WWER-440 fuel pin at extended burnup

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Date
2001-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Conference On WWER Fuel Performance, Modelling And Experimental Support
Abstract
The formation of rim region in LWR UO2 based nuclear fuel at high burnup is a common observation. This region has very high porosity due to excessive gas release. Such a region is also characterized by significantly high plutonium concentration and high local burnup compared to the internal fuel region. Spatial distribution of these parameters has been incorporated with fuel behavior and performance analysis codes by using mostly empirical relations. Variation of these parameters depends on the neutron flux as well as neutron energy spectrum. Detailed neutronics analysis is necessary for the accurate prediction of these parameters. This study is performed by MCNP4B Monte Carlo code for the calculation of local neutron flux, ORIGEN2 for burnup and depletion calculations, and MONTEBURNS for coupling these codes. For the analysis, a typical WWER-440 fuel pin and surrounding water moderator are considered in a hexagonal pin cell. Fuel pin is divided into a number of radial segments. A relatively small mesh size is used at the region near the surface to reveal the rim effect. The variation of plutonium and local burnup are obtained for high burnup. Results are compared with existing experimental observations for WWER-440 fuel and other theoretical predictions.
Description
Keywords
Rim effect, Rim efekti, WWER-440 fuel, WWER-440 yakıt, ORIGEN2, MCNP
Citation
Çolak, Ü., Akbaş, T. ve Gündüz, Ö. (2001). Burnup and plutonium distribution of WWER-440 fuel pin at extended burnup. International Conference On WWER Fuel Performance, Modelling And Experimental Support, 1-5 Oct 2001. Varna : Bulgaria.