CANDU & Differences with PWR

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CANDU Reactor

 Heavy-water moderator
 Natural-uranium dioxide fuel
 Pressure-tube reactor
 CANDU is a PHWR

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 CANDU and PWR
Reactor Coolant Systems: Very Similar

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 CANDU-PWR Balance of Plant
 Balance-of-plant features in CANDU and PWR
are very similar:
 Administration and maintenance facilities
 Pump house
 Reactor containment
 Turbine and generator

 Differences between CANDU and PWR are

principally in reactor-core design

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 Differences in Reactor-Core Design

CANDU PWR
 Natural-uranium fuel  Enriched-uranium fuel
 Heavy-water moderator &  Light-water moderator/coolant
coolant  Pressure vessel
 Pressure tubes; calandria not a
pressure vessel
 Coolant physically separated  No separation of coolant from
from moderator moderator
 Small/Simple fuel bundle  Large, more complex fuel
assembly
 On-power refuelling  Batch (off-power) refuelling
 No boron/chemical reactor  Boron/chemical reactor control in
control in coolant system coolant system
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CANDU On-Power Refuelling
Fuelling machines at both ends of the reactor:
One inserts new fuel, one removes irradiated fuel.

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 CANDU On-Power Refuelling
Leads to:
 Constant global power shape, with localized
“ripples” as channels are refuelled and go through
their burnup cycle
 Constant in-core burnup

 Constant shutdown-system effectiveness

 Possibility of on-power removal of failed fuel, and

therefore clean HTS

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Refuelling & Excess Core Reactivity

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 Refuelling & Excess Core Reactivity

What the previous slide means, in words:

 In CANDU, a little bit of fuel is replaced each day. The reactivity
change is small. The excess reactivity of the core is always small, a
few milli-k (except at the very beginning of life, when all the fuel is
fresh). This small excess reactivity is continuously compensated for
by varying the amount of light water in liquid zone-control
compartments. The low excess reactivity is a safety feature of the
CANDU lattice.
 In PWR (LWR generally), batch refuelling is used. About 1/3 of
the fuel in core is replaced every 12-18-24 months. The reactivity
change is very large. At the beginning of cycle (BOC), there is very
high excess core reactivity (100 milli-k?), which must be
compensated for with large amounts of boron in the moderator.

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 Reactivity Devices
In CANDU:
 Devices are in benign environment (moderator at low pressure
and temperature)
 Pressure-driven ejection not possible
 Separate devices for control and safety
 Modest reactivity worth
 Maximum total reactivity rate <0.35 mk/s

In PWR:
 Device worth is very high, to match high core excess reactivity
 Pressure-driven ejection must be considered in safety analysis
 Same for accidental boron dilution

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 Reactivity Transients

A) Loss of Regulation CANDU PWR

 Shutdown Systems 2 1
 Shutdown Systems completely Yes No
independent from RRS
 Reactivity-device worth Low High

 Prompt-neutron lifetime (Longer Long Shorter

lifetime means slower transients) (~0.9 ms) (~0.03 ms)

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 Reactivity Transients (cont’d)
B) Thermal Transients CANDU PWR

 Cold-water injection into coolant No large positive

effect reactivity

C) Other Transients CANDU PWR

 Shutoff-rod / control-rod ejection Not Large positive

possible reactivity
 Injection of unborated water into NA Large positive
coolant reactivity

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 Reactivity Transients (cont’d)
D) Loss of Coolant CANDU PWR

 Void Reactivity Large positive Large negative

reactivity reactivity

In CANDU, Large Loss of Coolant (LLOCA) is the accident which

is the most challenging in terms of positive reactivity insertion.
PWR lattice has very high negative fuel-temperature (Doppler) and
power coefficients, which cater to device ejection and short prompt-
neutron lifetime.
In CANDU, the fuel-temperature and power coefficients are much
less negative, but the transients are generally milder and slower.
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 CANDU Caters to Void Reactivity by:

 Arranging heat-transport system to minimize rate

of reactivity insertion on coolant voiding (e.g.,
subdividing the heat-transport system into 2 loops).
 Providing two fully capable Shutdown Systems that
can individually overtake any reactivity transient.

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 Core-Region Decoupling
 The CANDU core is more decoupled than a PWR core.
 This means that core regions or zones can behave

somewhat independently of others to a greater degree

in CANDU than in PWR: the spatial power distribution
can be more easily tilted.
 Also, refuelling occurs daily, in various core regions.

 A spatial-control system is more necessary in

CANDU.

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 Fuel-Cycle Safety
 Natural uranium or other low-fissile-content fuel
ensures that there is no potential for criticality of new
or used fuel in air or light water.
 No need to ship new fuel in borated steel

containers
 No need to borate the ECC System water

 No need to borate the fuel-bay water

 Simplified irradiated-fuel dry storage

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 Inherent CANDU Safety Features
 Reactivity devices in cool, low-pressure moderator.
Rod ejection not possible.
 Small core excess reactivity, because of on-power
refuelling.
 Worth of reactivity devices in RRS is low, magnitude
of reactivity-induced transients is limited.
 Reactivity-device worth constant over life of plant.
 Long prompt-neutron lifetime slows rate of transients.
 Nuclear lattice (lattice pitch) nearly optimized for
maximum reactivity. Any event that relocates the fuel
reduces reactivity.
cont’d
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 Inherent CANDU Safety Features
 No reactivity effect from many postulated transients,
including rapid cool-down of the heat-transport system.
 Moderator system can remove decay heat under such
severe conditions as a LLOCA coincident with ECC
failure.
 Low radiation fields in coolant, because of on-line
failed-fuel detection and removal, and absence of
chemicals for reactivity control.
 Easy handling of new and irradiated fuel. No criticality
concern, in ordinary water or air, regardless of storage
configuration.
 Large moderator volume serves as excellent heat sink in
hypothetical severe accidents.
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