FEMAXI-7 analysis on behavior of medium and high burnup BWR fuels during base-irradiation and power ramp

Ogiyanagi, Jin ; Hanawa, Satoshi ; Suzuki, Motoe; Nagase, Fumihisa 

Irradiation behavior of medium and high burnup BWR fuels during base-irradiation and power ramp test is analyzed by a fuel performance code FEMAXI-7. The calculated values such as fission gas release after the base-irradiation and a cladding diameter profile before and after the ramp test show a reasonable agreement with measured PIE data. It was also found that the code can reasonably predict the FGR at high temperature condition up to 1800C of pellet center temperature by using the FGR model indigenous to the code and the enhanced value of the original Turnbull model of fission gas atoms diffusion constant. For the ridging deformation of the cladding before and after the ramp test, the local PCMI analysis with 2-D geometry in FEMAXI-7 gave a reasonable agreement with the PIE data. Thus, it is demonstrated that the FEMAXI-7 code can give an appropriate insight into the complicated thermal and mechanical interactions in medium and high burnup BWR fuel rods.