Parametric Study of Control Rod Exposure for PWR Burnup Credit Criticality Safety Analyses

The Interim Staff Guidance on burnup credit (ISG-8) for pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF), issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Spent Fuel Project Office, recommends the use of analyses that provide an ''adequate representation of the physics'' and notes particular concern with the ''need to consider the more reactive actinide compositions of fuels burned with fixed absorbers or with control rods fully or partly inserted.'' In the absence of readily available information on the extent of control rod (CR) usage in U.S. PWRs and the subsequent reactivity effect of CR exposure on discharged SNF, NRC staff have indicated a need for greater understanding in these areas. In response, this paper presents results of a parametric study of the effect of CR exposure on the reactivity of discharged SNF for various CR designs (including Axial Power Shaping Rods), fuel enrichments, and exposure conditions (i.e., burnup and axial insertion). The study is performed in two parts. In the first part, two-dimensional calculations are performed, effectively assuming full axial CR insertion. These calculations are intended to bound the effect of CR exposure and facilitate comparisons of the various CR designs. In the second part, three-dimensional calculations are performed to determine the effect of various axial insertion conditions and gain a better understanding of reality. The results from the study demonstrate that the reactivity effect increases with increasing CR exposure (e.g., burnup) and decreasing initial fuel enrichment (for a fixed burnup). Additionally, the results show that even for significant burnup exposures, minor axial CR insertions (e.g., < 20 cm) result in an insignificant effect on the k{sub eff} of a spent fuel cask.