Recently, the French CEA proposed the use of the so-called CORAIL assembly design for stabilizing the production of plutonium in a PWR. One of the attractive features of the CORAIL concept is that it makes use of a retrofittable PWR fuel assembly design without adversely affecting core safety and operational parameters or fuel cycle infrastructures (i.e., uranium enrichment and plutonium production capabilities). In previous work, performance parameters and reactivity coefficients for the CORAIL assembly were evaluated for a single startup reactor cycle. The current report summarizes the methodologies used in this study and the evaluation of the CORAIL assembly as part of a sustainable nuclear enterprise with multirecycling of plutonium. The CORAIL assembly employs a standard 17x17 PWR fuel assembly with a heterogeneous loading of UO2 and MOX fuel pins. In a 3 batch, 15,000 MWD/t cycle length fuel management scheme, the plutonium content in the MOX pins reaches an equilibrium of around 8%, with a uranium enrichment in the UO2 pins of around 4.8%. At equilibrium, the Pu is stabilized, such that there is no net production of Pu in the reactor cycle. Also, the reactivity coefficients of a core fully loaded with CORAIL assemblies do not show any significant differences to those of a reference UO2 core. It is important to recognize that the fuel cycle studies described in this report are based on a recycle process employing plutonium separation. In future work, the performance impact for recycle of all transuranics (no plutonium separation) in the CORAIL concept will be evaluated in a similar manner.
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