ICONE23-1198 FUELLING STUDY USING BURNABLE NEUTRON ABSORBERS : MITIGATING FUELLING TRANSIENTS AND IMPROVING POWER COMPLIANCE MARGIN DURING REFUELLING

Abstract

A fuelling study for CANDU reactors is conducted using natural uranium (NU) fuels doped with trace amounts of burnable neutron absorbers. The burnable absorbers of interest include gadolinium oxide (Gd_2O_3) and europium oxide (Eu_2O_3). The study incorporates fuel-lattice simulations as well as refuelling and core-following simulations to quantify the impact in the in-core behavior of the fuel. The fuel lattice simulations were conducted using the WIMS-AECL code while refuelling and core-following simulations were conducted using the Reactor Fuelling Simulation Program (RFSP). This paper presents the improvements in the safety margins gained by the use of burnable absorbers during normal operation.