LAUSR

Abstract Nuclear energy production generates Minor Actinide (MA) and Plutonium (Pu) isotopes, being these ones the main reason for the longtime storage of the depleted fuel assemblies. A reduction of these produced isotopes will decrease the volume required for their storage and their total elimination could eventually decrease the storage time. A possible alternative for MA reduction is recycling them into Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) cores. It is proposed that the corresponding BWR fuel assemblies into these cores will contain 4 MA bearing-rods. For this purpose a Uranium Oxide (UO2) fuel assembly or a Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel assembly can be used. For the MOX fuel assembly two types of fuel assemblies are used, the first one only considers the replacement of 4 MOX rods by 4 MA-bearing rods and the last one considers also increasing the fuel-to moderator ratio by the replacement of 8 MOX fuel rods by water rods. The behavior of the designed fuel assemblies is compared against a reference UO2 standard 10x10 BWR fuel assembly. Results show the MA and Pu reduction achieved by the use of each one of the four proposed assemblies. Advantages and disadvantages of the recycling using each one of the fuel assemblies are discussed.