Influence of coolant temperature and power pulse width on fuel failure limit under reactivity-initiated accident conditions

Sugiyama, Tomoyuki ; Udagawa, Yutaka  ; Suzuki, Motoe; Nagase, Fumihisa 

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has performed pulse irradiation tests using the NSRR to investigate fuel behavior under Reactivity-Initiated Accident (RIA) conditions. The NSRR tests have provided data of the pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI) failure of high burnup fuels up to 77 GWd/t. In particular, the PCMI failure limit is the important information which is needed in the reactor safety review. However, there are some differences between the NSRR tests and RIAs supposed in power reactors, such as the coolant temperature and the width of power pulse. Influence of these differences should be quantitatively evaluated in order to estimate the PCMI failure limit anticipated under the power reactor conditions from the NSRR data. This paper presents experimental results from a set of room and high temperature RIA tests, and discusses the evaluation procedure of the influence of coolant temperature and power pulse width on the failure limit on the basis of the experimental data.