LWR Fuel Performance Meeting, Top Fuel 2013, pp.87 - 90
Abstract
Boron burnable poisons are under development to replace Gd burnable absorber for the case when it is needed. The effect of boron addition and resultant He production on fuel rod internal pressure was evaluated using the FRAPCON code. The additional He generation by the addition of boron to UO 2 fuel was considered in the code by modifying the code for additional He production from the neutron absorption by B10. Boron addition up to 500 ppm showed minimal or almost negligible effect on the rod internal pressure of 6 cycle irradiated high burnup rod. The minimal effect of boron addition was attributed to the small amount of produced He compared to fission gas production and almost the same release fraction of He as that of fission gas.