Abstract:
Aiming to apply the fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel in small module pressurized water reactor (PWR), neutronic design and analysis on burnable poisons were carried out. The homogeneous mixing burnable poisons embedded in silicon carbide (SiC) matrix, such as Gd
2O
3, Er
2O
3, Sm
2O
3, Eu
2O
3, Dy
2O
3 and HfO
2, were studied via comparing the initial reactivity worth of the burnable absorber, the rate of burnup and the residual negative reactivity worth. The tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle kernel in the concept FCM fuel design was up to 800 μm, thus the random geometry capability was developed in RMC code to treat the significant selfshielding effect. It is found that Er
2O
3 is excellent in integrated neutronics performance, thus can be used as burnable poison for FCM fuel loaded PWR. Gd
2O
3 and Eu
2O
3 are identified as candidate burnable poisons for further study. Sm
2O
3, HfO
2 and Dy
2O
3 are not capable for burnable poison.