Investigation of using U-233 in thorium base instead of conventional fuel in Russian PWR by SERPENT Code

Abstract

In this work, the fuel assembly of type TVS-2006, which is used in Russian reactor VVER-1200, is considered. A proposed fuel of Thorium and Uranium-233 ((Th232+U233)O2 has been investigated to replace the fuel currently used (U238 as a fertile and U235 as fissile). This has been done in order to compare the; conversion ratio, reproduction factor (?), burnup, effective delayed neutrons fraction (ßeff), Minor Actinides (MA) inventory, and Temperature coefficients of reactivity. The calculations performed using the Monte Carlo code (SERPENT-2.31) to analyze and compare the two fuels. Results showed that using U-233 in the Thorium base will considerably increase the reactivity at the Beginning Of Cycle (BOC), increase the conversion ratio, and burn up. Besides, the safety parameters for the proposed Th-based fuel, in general, lower than that for Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) but still acceptable.