Feasibility Design Study of Long Life BWR with Natural Uranium/Thorium as Fuel Cycle Input

Zaki Su'ud (Nuclear and Biophysics Research Division, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia)
Rijal Kurniadi (Nuclear and Biophysics Research Division, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia)
Rida SNM (Doctoral Student, Dept. Nuclear Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan)
Zuhair Zuhair (PTRKN BATAN Kompleks Puspitek Serpong)

Indonesian Journal of Physics (IJP)
Vol 20 No 1 (2009): Vol. 20 No. 1, January 2009

Feasibility design study of Long Life BWR with natural uranium/thorium as fuel cycle input has been performed. The reactor core is divided into 6 equal regions in radial direction. The fresh fuel is first loaded into the most outer region then shifted to the center of the core, and from there shifted to the nearby region in the outward direction. Nitride fuel is employed in the core to get better criticality and conversion/breeding ratio. The results show that uranium fuel combined with low moderating ratio environment is superior to make the system critical.