Fission gas release in irradiated UO fuel at burnup of 45 GWd/t during simulated Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA) condition

Amaya, Masaki  ; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki ; Fuketa, Toyoshi

Pulse irradiation simulating RIA condition was carried out for test rod prepared from fuel irradiated in a commercial reactor. After the pulse irradiation, optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations and electron probe micro analysis (EPMA) were conducted for the test rod as a part of destructive tests. Fission gas release behavior during pulse irradiation was investigated by EPMA and puncture test. Xeon depression was observed in the fuel pellet after pulse irradiation at periphery and center region. It is considered that fission gas was mainly released from the pellet center region during pulse irradiation. The amount of xenon release during pulse irradiation was estimated to be 10-12% from the EPMA results and this estimated value was comparable with the puncture test result. Comparing the estimated value with other results of out-of-pile annealing tests, it was concluded that most fission gas, which was accumulated at grain boundary during base irradiation, was released from the center region of test fuel pellet during pulse irradiation.