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Megawatt-day per Metric Ton – MWd/MTU

In general, megawatt-day is a derived unit of energy. It is used to measure the energy produced, especially in power engineering. One megawatt day equals one megawatt of power produced by a power plant for one day (megawatts multiplied by the time in days). 1 MWd = 24,000 kWh.

At nuclear power plants, there are also gigawatt-days because it approximately corresponds to energy produced by power plants for one day. This unit (MWd) was also used to derive the unit of fuel burnup. The most commonly used measure of fuel burnup is the fission energy release per unit mass of fuel. Therefore fuel burnup of nuclear fuel normally has units of megawatt-days per metric tonne (MWd/MTU), where tonne refers to a metric ton of uranium metal (sometimes MWd/tU HM as Heavy Metal). In this field, the megawatt-day refers to the thermal power of the reactor, not the fraction which is converted to electricity. For example, for a typical nuclear reactor with thermal power of 3,000 MWth, about ~1,000 MWe of electrical power is generated in the generator.

For example, a reactor with 100,000 kg of fuel operating at a 3000 MWth power level for 1,000 days would have a burnup increase of 30,000 MWd/MTU. As was written, each watt of power production requires about 3.1×1010 fissions per second. In words of fissions, the fissioning of about 1 g of U-235 produces about 1 MWd of thermal energy (see: Energy Release per Fission).

Discharged fuel (i.e., after four years of operation) from light water reactors has usually a burnup of 45,000 to 50,000 MWd/MTU. This means that about 45 to 50 kg of fissile material per metric ton of nuclear fuel used have been fissioned.

Fuel Burnup – Core Burnup

In nuclear engineering, fuel burnup (also known as fuel utilization) measures how much energy is extracted from nuclear fuel and measures fuel depletion. The most commonly defined as the fission energy release per unit mass of fuel in megawatt-days per metric ton of heavy metal of uranium (MWd/tHM) or similar units. Fuel burnup defines energy release as well as defines the isotopic composition of irradiated fuel. Since during refueling, every 12 to 18 months, some of the fuel – usually one third or one-quarter of the core – is replaced by fresh fuel assemblies, and power distribution is not uniform in the core, reactor engineers distinguish between:

  • Core Burnup. Averaged burnup over entire core (i.e., over all fuel assemblies). For example – BUcore = 25 000 MWd/tHM
  • Fuel Assembly Burnup. Averaged burnup over single assembly  (i.e., overall fuel pins of a single fuel assembly). For example – BUFA = 40 000 MWd/tHM
  • Pin Burnup. Averaged burnup over a single fuel pin or fuel rod (overall fuel pellets of a single fuel pin). For example – BUpin = 45 000 MWd/tHM
  • Local or Fine Mesh Burnup. Burnup significantly varies also within a single fuel pellet. For example, the local burnup at the rim of the UO2 pellet can be 2–3 times higher than the average pellet burnup. This local anomaly causes the formation of a structure known as a High Burnup Structure.
 
References:
Nuclear and Reactor Physics:
  1. J. R. Lamarsh, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Theory, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA (1983).
  2. J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.
  3. W. M. Stacey, Nuclear Reactor Physics, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN: 0- 471-39127-1.
  4. Glasstone, Sesonske. Nuclear Reactor Engineering: Reactor Systems Engineering, Springer; 4th edition, 1994, ISBN: 978-0412985317
  5. W.S.C. Williams. Nuclear and Particle Physics. Clarendon Press; 1 edition, 1991, ISBN: 978-0198520467
  6. G.R.Keepin. Physics of Nuclear Kinetics. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co; 1st edition, 1965
  7. Robert Reed Burn, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Operation, 1988.
  8. U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.

Advanced Reactor Physics:

  1. K. O. Ott, W. A. Bezella, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Statics, American Nuclear Society, Revised edition (1989), 1989, ISBN: 0-894-48033-2.
  2. K. O. Ott, R. J. Neuhold, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Dynamics, American Nuclear Society, 1985, ISBN: 0-894-48029-4.
  3. D. L. Hetrick, Dynamics of Nuclear Reactors, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 0-894-48453-2. 
  4. E. E. Lewis, W. F. Miller, Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 0-894-48452-4.

See above:

Fuel Burnup