Progress of Research and Development on Annular Fuel Assembly for PWR Application

Compared with traditional solid fuel rod, annular fuel rod has double cooled surfaces that make the ratio of surface to area-volume for heat transfer increase, the path of heat conduction shorten, and the peak temperature of fuel pellet decrease sharply. Therefore, annular fuel can increase the power density of the reactor core while maintaining a sufficient safety margin. The technical status of annular fuel in the United States, Korea and other countries was summarized briefly. The progress of research and development on technologies for annular fuel design, validation experiment and manufacture in China was shown. The prospective applications of annular fuel were also given in this paper.