Xenon transient analysis for direct use of spent pressurized water reactor fuel in CANDU reactors (DUPIC)

The xenon transient in a CANDU-6 reactor loaded with DUPIC fuel has been studied. This study utilized WIMS-AECL to generate xenon properties for the RFSP code to calculate the xenon load. The xenon property generation method by WIMS-AECL was validated for a natural uranium CANDU-6 core. The validation calculation has shown that the xenon load predicted by WIMSAECL and RFSP is within 2% of the reference value obtained by the design codes POWDERPUFSV and RFSP. The xenon load of the DUPIC fuel core was calculated for various reactor conditions such as shutdown, startup and power level change; and the results were compared with those of a natural uranium core. This study has shown that the xenon load of CANDU-6 reactor loaded with DUPIC fuel is much lower than that of the natural uranium core; however, the xenon transients are stabilized in both cores.