Enhancing the efficiency of the MOX fuel cycle for VVER-1200 using burnable absorbers

Abstract

Margin adoption in a nuclear power plant (NPP) design is a frequent approach to strengthen the design’s robustness and provide an efficient way to handle uncertainties. However, the current trend of increasing fuel enrichment, including the use of MOX fuel to achieve a higher burnup, leads to non-uniformity in the energy release (power peaking factor) at the level of the fuel rod lattice, thereby causing a great effect on the reactor margins. One of the ways to reduce the power peaking factor is the use of burnable absorbers (BAs) which helps to minimize the power peaking factor. This work aims at enhancing the efficiency of the MOX fuel cycle for VVER-1200 reactor by replacing the Gadolinium burnable absorber to Erbia burnable absorber.