Neutronic Behavior Analysis on Natural Uranium Equivalent Fuel

This paper expresses an interest in using recycled uranium (RU) in heavy water reactors. Using the data of recycled uranium and depleted uranium (DU) provided by IAEA, and the information of natural uranium equivalent (NUE) fuel loaded in reactor core, the program ALPHA was used to adjust the RU/DU radio to get NUE fuel compositions. Based on the standard bundle cell carrier of CANDU 6, the k_∞, exit burnup, coolant void reactivity (CVR) and fuel temperature coefficient of NUE were evaluated and compared with those of NU. It shows neutronics equivalent of the NUE fuel with the corresponding nominal NU fuel.