Analsyis of the spatial isotopic distributions during the burnup of UMOX- and ThMOX-fuels on unit cell basis

A detailed analysis of the plutonium burning in a representative PWR fuel pin is performed for comparison of the ThMOX and UMOX fuel performance. Special effort is made in the analysis of the changes in the spatial distribution of isotope concentrations during the burnup in a representative LWR fuel pin. This unique analysis of the changes in the spatial particle densities gives a new insight into the system behaviour. The different ways of plutonium breeding and reduction for the major isotopes of the two considered fuels are analyzed and discussed. Finally, the advantages and limitations of the use of Thorium based MOX fuel for the burning of plutonium are discussed. The calculations are performed with the licensing grade code module HELIOS 1.9.