Assessment of possible cycle lengths for fully encapsulated microstructure fueled light water reactor concepts

► The cycle length for FCM-fueled LWR concepts with current assembly geometries are estimated. ► Nitride fuel is shown suitable for achieving reasonable cycle lengths. ► Possible use of burnable poisons to limit the BOL reactivity investigated. ► Preliminary fuel performance analysis performed. ► Constraint of conventional fuel assembly geometry should be relaxed. The use of TRISO-particle-based dispersion fuel within SiC matrix and cladding materials has the potential to allow the design of extremely safe LWRs with failure-proof fuel. This paper examines the feasibility of LWR-like cycle length for such fuel with the imposed constraint of strictly retaining the original geometry of the fuel pins and assemblies. The motivation for retaining the original geometry is to provide the ability to incorporate the fuel “as-is” into existing LWRs while retaining their thermal–hydraulic characteristics. Another mandatory constraint is use of low enriched uranium (at or below 20 w/o). The feasibility of using this fuel is assessed by looking at two factors: cycle lengths and fuel material failure rates. Other considerations (e.g., safety parameters such as reactivity coefficients, feedback, etc.) were not considered at this stage of the study. The study includes the examination of increases in the TRISO kernel sizes without changing the thickness of any of the coating layers. In addition, cases where the buffer layer thickness is allowed to vary are also considered. The study shows that a naïve use of UO2 (even up to 20 w/o enrichment) results in cycle lengths too short to be practical for existing LWR designs and operational demands. Increasing fissile inventory within the fuel compacts shows that acceptable cycle lengths can be achieved. The increase of fissile inventory can be accomplished through multiple means, including higher particle packing fraction, higher enrichment, larger fuel kernel sizes, and the use of higher density fuels (that contain a higher number of U atoms per unit volume). In this study, starting with the recognized highest packing fraction practically achievable (44%), combinations of the other means have been evaluated. The models demonstrate cycle lengths comparable to those of ordinary LWRs. As expected, TRISO particles with extremely large kernels are shown to fail under all considered scenarios. In contrast, the designs that do not depart too drastically from those of the nominal NGNP HTR fuel TRISO particles are shown to perform satisfa