A burnup credit methodology for PWR spent fuel storage pools: Application to a standard PWR nuclear power plant

[EN] This paper proposes a methodology for burnup credit of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) pool storage based on the axial burnup of the fuel assemblies. Following the NRC guidance and normative for NPP safety, axial burnup profiles from a database were analysed, and a conservative theoretical profile tha...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Castro, V. F., Pereira, C., Miró Herrero, Rafael|||0000-0003-1012-0869, Verdú Martín, Gumersindo Jesús|||0000-0001-5098-080X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/207471
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/207471
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Burnup credit
Spent fuel
PWR
Storage pools
Scale code system
Axial burnup
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Descripción
Sumario:[EN] This paper proposes a methodology for burnup credit of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) pool storage based on the axial burnup of the fuel assemblies. Following the NRC guidance and normative for NPP safety, axial burnup profiles from a database were analysed, and a conservative theoretical profile that fits the safety conditions was obtained. This profile sets a limit on the upper criticality of the assemblies, and it is used to obtain the pool loading curve, which dictates if a fuel assembly fits to be loaded in the studied SNF pool based on its initial enrichment level and burnup. Although it takes burnup credit, this methodology follows strict safety normative and is deemed suitable for further analysis in SNF pools. This methodology can be used to conservatively reduce the requisites for the storage of spent fuel by establishing a burnup profile that bounds all other profiles. This approach allows for more flexibility in the spent fuel pool loading.