Thermo-chemical Characteristics of Powder Fabricated by Oxidation of Spent PWR Fuel
Thermochemcial characteristics of powder fabricated using oxidation treatment of spent PWR fuel and SIMFUEL were evaluated for recycling of spent fuel such as DUPIC process. Especially, the influence of spent fuel burn-ups on the powder fabrication characteristics was experimentally evaluated, ranging from 27,300 to 65,000 MWd/tU. Densities of powder manufactured from an oxidation, OREOX and the milling processes at the same process conditions were compared as a function of the fuel burn-ups respectively. Also, based on chemical analysis results, homogeneity of fissile elements in oxidized powder was confirmed. Keywords—Spent PWR fuel, DUPIC, Oxidation, OREOX, Powder, Chemical analysis
THE STATUS AND PROSPECT OF DUPIC FUEL TECHNOLOGY
Since 1991, Korea, Canada and United States have performed the direct use of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel in the Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors (DUPIC) fuel development project. Unlike the Tandem fuel cycle, which requires a wet reprocessing, the DUPIC fuel technology can directly refabricate CANDU fuels from the PWR spent fuel and, therefore, is recognized as a highly proliferation-resistant fuel cycle technology, which can be adopted even in non-proliferation treaty countries. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has fabricated DUPIC fuel elements in a laboratory- scale remote fuel fabrication facility. KAERI has demonstrated the fuel performance in the research reactor, and has confirmed the operational feasibility and safety of a CANDU reactor loaded with the DUPIC fuel using conventional design and analysis tools, which will be the foundation of the future practical and commercial uses of DUPIC fuel.
Lookup Tables for Predicting CHF and Film-Boiling Heat Transfer: Past, Present, and Future
Abstract Lookup tables (LUTs) have been used widely for the prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) and film-boiling heat transfer for water-cooled tubes. LUTs are basically normalized data banks. They eliminate the need to choose between the many different CHF and film-boiling heat transfer prediction methods available. The LUTs have many advantages; e.g., (a) they are simple to use, (b) there is no iteration required, (c) they have a wide range of applications, (d) they may be applied to nonaqueous fluids using fluid-to-fluid modeling relationships, and (e) they are based on a very large database. Concerns associated with the use of LUTs include (a) there are fluctuations in the value of the CHF or film-boiling heat transfer coefficient (HTC) with pressure, mass flux, and quality, (b) there are large variations in the CHF or the film-boiling HTC between the adjacent table entries, and (c) there is a lack or scarcity of data at certain flow conditions. Work on the LUTs is continuing. This will resolve the aforementioned concerns and improve the LUT prediction capability. This work concentrates on better smoothing of the LUT entries, increasing the database, and improving models at conditions where data are sparse or absent.