Estimation of Fuel Burnup Rate for Core Conversion for the Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1) Fueled With 19.75% Enriched UO2 USING VENTURE PC Code

A standardized burnup analysis using VENTURE-PC computer codes system has been performed for the core conversion study of Nigeria Research Reactor-1. The result obtained from this analysis showed that the mass of Uranium decreases with increase in the number of days of reactor operation while the quantity of Plutonium continues to build up linearly. The buildup of the fissile isotope in the Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) core is very much greater than in the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) core. The quantity of Uranium-235 consumed and the amount of Plutonium-239 produce in the core of the reactor were 13.95 g and 0.766745 g respectively for the period of 11 years of reactor operation which is in good agreement with other literatures. This results obtained showed that uranium dioxide (UO2) fuel is a potential material for future Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) core conversion of Nigeria Research Reactor.