Subchannel analysis of CANDU-SCWR fuel

A cooperative study has been initiated at Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) to develop a subchannel code ATHAS for preliminary analyses of flow and enthalpy distributions and cladding temperatures in CANDU fuel at super-critical water conditions. The code is applicable for transient and steady-state calculations. Then the paper uses the ATHAS code to analyze CANDU-SCWR which is operating at 25.0 MPa pressure. The results show that the maximum cladding-surface temperature of CANFLEX bundle is 804.1 °C, which is below the limit of design, and it is appropriate for use in the CANDU super-critical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) based on heat-transfer analysis.