Potential to approach the long-life core in a light water reactor with uranium oxide fuel

The central issue underlying this paper is related to spreading the benefits of nuclear power over developing countries with no nuclear infrastructure. This envisages the decreased proliferation concern along with minimizing the on-site fuel management. To satisfy these requirements, an approach is addressed to the long-life core in a light water reactor with uranium enrichment up to 19.5%. Reduced plutonium accumulation per total energy produced in such a core is a clear advantage from the viewpoint of proliferation resistance. The challenge of the long-life core necessitates the use of burnable poisons. It was found that erbium doped uranium oxide fuel helps to keep sufficient criticality up to 100 GWd/tHM burnup without compromising the safety parameters.