Fuel pin failure threshold under the slow TOP condition; Survey on the existing In-pile tests and investigation of the FCMI mitigation mechanism

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Existing data of in-pile ramp-type transient-overpower tests (slow TOPs hereafter), such as those of the CABRI-2 and CABRI-FAST tests, the EBR-II TOPI-1E test and the former TREAT tests, were extensively surveyed and this led to a global interpretation which provided a consistency among the tests. Through this study, a basic fuel pin failure mechanism was comprehended and it was confirmed that fuel pins with low to intermediate smear density have a very high failure threshold with significant mitigation effects against fuel-cladding mechanical interactions. Such high failure threshold of low to intermediate smear density fuel is considered to be attributed to the following three effects: (1)absorption of fuel thermal expansion and fuel swelling by void space (porosity or cracks) within the fuel, (2)mitigation of fuel swelling by an early gas escape into the free volume, and (3)mitigation of molten cavity pressurization upon fuel melting. These effects were refrected to the analytical model of the transient fuel behavior code PAPAS-2S. Application of this improved PAPAS-2S model to representative slow TOP tests provided results consistent with the test data, suggesting that the above-mentioned consideration is valid.