A study on heat capacity of oxide and nitride nuclear fuels by using Einstein-Debye approximation

Abstract

Knowledge on fuel enthalpy and its temperature derivative, the heat capacity, are important quantities in determination of fuel behavior in normal reactor operation and reactor transients. The aim of this study is to compare the heat capacity of oxide and nitrite fuels by using Einstein-Debye approximation. A simple analytical expression was performed to calculate the heat capacity of fuels. To test the validity and reliability, the calculated formulas were compared to published results for various nuclear fuels including UO2, ThO2, PuO2 and UN. Calculated formulas yielded results in consistent with literature.