Fuel Burnup Characteristics of the NRU Research Reactor

Abstract

The driver fuel of the NRU research reactor at AECL, Chalk River is a low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel alloy of Al-61 wt% U3Si, consisting of particles of U3Si dispersed in a continuous aluminum matrix, with 19.8% U235 in uranium. This paper describes the burnup characteristics for this type of fuel in NRU, including the determination of fuel depletion using the neutronic simulation code TRIAD, comparisons between simulated and measured burnup values, and the regulatory licensing operational average fuel burnup limit.