Publications

Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC) Technology and Policy Program

Core Design Options for High Power Density BWRs: Third Annual TEPCO Report

Mujid S. Kazimi, Pavel Hejzlar, Jacopo Buongiorno, Thomas Conboy, Rui Hu, Aydin Karahan, and Thomas McKrell

MIT-NFC-PR-102 (September 2008)

Executive Summary

The overall objective of this research is to assess the feasibility of increasing the core power of existing and future BWRs, thus improving their economic performance, by increasing the power density while maintaining the same accepted safety margins. In principle, this may be achieved by varying the operating conditions, assembly geometry, fuel material types, and/or fuel-pin designs. While some progress has been achieved over the years towards increasing the power density of BWRs, it has mainly come by three approaches: reducing the uncertainty about operating conditions, reducing the peak pin and assembly power factors and using smaller diameter pins in the assemblies. This project will focus on what can be achieved through innovative geometry and/or materials of the fuel pins at fixed operating pressure, core inlet temperature, core exit enthalpy, and power distribution.