Nuclear fuel assembly and nuclear reactor incorporating the same

Abstract

A fuel assembly has part length and full length fuel rods, and a pair of large-diameter water rods which occupy an area which can accommodate 7 fuel rods. Natural uranium regions are provided in the upper and lower end portions of the effective fuel zone of the fuel assembly. An intermediate region between these upper and lower natural uranium regions provides an enriched uranium region which has three axial sections: an upper section, a middle section and a lower section. The middle section has the highest average enrichment, the lower section has the medium average enrichment and the upper section has the smallest average enrichment. The difference in the average enrichment between the middle section and the lower section is smaller than that between the middle section and the upper section. The upper section has a lower concentration of burnable poison than other sections of the enriched uranium region. According to this arrangement, a greater burn-up degree of the fuel assembly can be achieved with minimal increment of the average enrichment, while preserving sufficiently large safety margin such as the thermal margin of the reactor and the reactor cold shut down margin.