Speaker
Description
The Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme funded by the UK Government through the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy revolves around developing capability and capacity for nuclear while seeking to reduce costs across the nuclear lifecycle, to ensure that nuclear can play a part in delivering secure, low-carbon energy in the global market. This includes the development of Advanced Technology Fuels which are targeted at providing increased efficiency within current generation reactors. One novel fuel type that is being considered is uranium nitride to replace existing uranium dioxide fuels in current and future reactors. This fuel having improved thermal conductivity and higher actinide density. The use of such fuel will require the ability to accurately simulate its performance in a range of operational and safety scenarios across the fuel cycle.
This work considers the uncertainties introduced from nuclear data during calculations supporting manufacturing, irradiation, and waste management. The nuclear data sensitivities are studied from all sources but are principally concerned with the capture and scattering cross-sections of the nitrogen isotopes. As no experimental benchmarks exist to validate simulations of uranium nitride fuel, the original measurements and evaluations are studied in terms of their uncertainties. Additionally, the sensitivity of important parameters such as criticality, fuel life and increased ${^{14}}$C production are considered over a range of possible uranium enrichments in natural nitrogen and nitrogen reduced in ${^{14}}$N