Phenomenology of BWR fuel assembly degradation

Kurata, Masaki ; Barrachin, M.*; Haste, T.*; Steinbrueck, M.*

Severe accidents occurred at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) required an immediate re-examination of fuel degradation phenomenology. The present paper reviews the updated knowledge on the phenomenology of the fuel degradation, focusing mainly on the BWR fuel assembly degradation at the macroscopic scale and that of the individual interactions at the meso-scale. Oxidation of boron carbide (BC) control rods potentially generate far larger amounts of heat and hydrogen under BWR accident conditions. All integral tests with BC control rods or control blades have shown early failure, liquefaction, relocation and oxidation of BC starting at temperatures around 1250C, well below the significant interaction temperatures of UO-Zry. These interactions or reactions potentially influence the progress of fuel degradation in the early phase. The steam-starved conditions, which are being discussed as a likely scenario at the FDNPS accident, highly influence the individual interactions and potentially lead the fuel degradation in non-prototypical directions. The detailed phenomenology of individual interactions and their influence on the transient and on the late phase of the severe accidents are also discussed.