Thermodynamic and transport properties of thoria–urania fuel of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor

Effect of thorium addition on the thermophysical properties of uranium dioxide: Atomistic simulations

“…To reduce the fuel cost and the amount of spent fuel per unit energy generation as well as improve the physical properties of fuel matrix, the mixed oxide fuel such as U 1-y Th y O 2 solid solution has been considered as an alternative to the conventional UO 2 fuel in the past few decades [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The reasons why the thorium containing fuels are possibly advantageous compared to pure UO 2 are the desirable properties of ThO 2 which include [7][8][9]: (1) the neutronic performance of ThO 2 is very excellent due to the high conversion ratio of the Th, (2) the thermal conductivity and melting temperature of ThO 2 fuel are higher than that of UO 2 fuel, (3) the amount of long-lived minor actinides and plutonium generated in the fuel cycle is small, and (4) the corrosion resistance of the ThO 2 fuel in the high-temperature water is very excellent.…”