NSRR tests under simulated power oscillation conditions of BWRs

Nakamura, Jinichi ; Nakamura, Takehiko ; Sasajima, Hideo ; Suzuki, Motoe; Uetsuka, Hiroshi

In BWR, power oscillations can occur due to the void fraction fluctuation. To investigate the fuel behavior during power oscillation of BWRs, two types of irradiated fuel rods were tested under simulated power oscillation conditions in the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor(NSRR). One is high burnup BWR fuel (56GWd/t) test, with 4 power oscillation cycles, to clarify the behavior of high burnup fuel. The second one is high enriched fuel(20%,25GWd/t) test, with 7 power cycles, to perform the test under high power conditions. The fuel behavior data, such as cladding elongation, fuel stack elongation, cladding temperature, etc. were obtained in these tests. The DNB did not occur in these tests. The PCI was observed through cladding elongation and fuel stack elongation during the power oscillations, but the residual strain of cladding was very small. Fuel behavior under simulated power oscillations is discussed based on in-pile data and PIE data and is compared with FEMAXI-6 and FRAP-T6 calculation.