Behavior of uranium-zirconium hydride fuel under reactivity initiated accident conditions

Sasajima, Hideo; Sugiyama, Tomoyuki; Nakamura, Takehiko; Fuketa, Toyoshi; Uetsuka, Hiroshi

Proceedings of 7th International Topical Meeting on Research Reactor Fuel Management (ENS RRFM2003), p.109 - 113, 2003/03

Uranium-zirconium hydride (U-ZrHx) fuel has been widely utilized in the world as TRIGA reactor fuel. In order to obtain the fuel performance data under accident conditions and to enhance accountability of the safety assessment of the reactors using the fuel, irradiation tests under power burst type accident conditions have been conducted in the NSRR. Five pulse irradiation tests have been performed at peak fuel enthalpies ranging from 187 J/g to 483 J/g. Cladding surface temperature increased rapidly at the pulse and DNB occurred in peak fuel enthalpy over 187 J/g in the tests. The DNB occurred at lower fuel enthalpy in the U-ZrH1.6 fuel than in the UO fuel rods. The rod internal pressure rose up to as high as 1MPa in the transient heating tests, suggesting considerable release of the hydrogen decomposed from the fuel. The peak pressure was lower than equilibrium hydrogen pressure of 1.5MPa at the peak temperature, suggesting the transient effect. Considerable PCMI was observed in the tests, through cladding elongation up to 3.3 mm synchronized to the pellet stack deformation.

None

; Fujiwara, Masayuki*

JNC TJ8430 2000-001, 55 Pages, 2000/03

JNC-TJ8430-2000-001.pdf:4.82MB

no abstracts in English

Pu Vector Sensitivity Study for a Pu Burning Fast Reactor Part II:Rod Worth Assessment and Design Optimization

Hunter

PNC TN9410 97-057, 106 Pages, 1997/05

PNC-TN9410-97-057.pdf:2.99MB

This study was based on a 'pancake' type fast reactor core design of 600 MW(e), which had been optimized for Pu burning with a feed Pu vector appropriate to once-through irradiation of MOX fuel in a PWR. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of varying the Pu vector, examining various methods of offsetting the effects of such a change, and finally to produce fuel cycles optimized for the different qualities of Pu vector within the same basic design. In addition to the reference (once-through) Pu vector, two extreme Pu vectors were examined: high quality Pu from military stockpiles; low quality Pu corresponding to the equilibrium point of multiple recycling in a Pu burning fast reactor. Variations in Pu quality were overcome by changing the fuel inventory - replacing some of the fuel by diluent material, and altering the fuel pin size. Using absorber material (BC) as diluent improves the rod worth shutdown margin but degrades the Na void and Doppler safety parameters, a non-absorber diluent has the opposite effects, so a mix of the 2 material types was used to optimize the core characteristics. Of the non-absorber diluent materials examined, ZrH gave significantly better performance than all others; BC was the second choice for non-absorber diluent, because of its compatibility with BC absorber. It was not possible to accommodate the lower quality (multi-recycled) Pu vector without a significant increase in the fuel pin volume. It was not generally possible, especially with the increased fuel pin size, to achieve positive rod worth shutdown margins - this was overcome by increasing the number of control rods. For the higher quality Pu vectors to maintain ratings within limits, it was necessary to adopt hollow fuel pellets, or else to use the diluent material as an inert matrix in the fuel pellets. It proved possible to accommodate both extremes of Pu vector within a single basic design, maintaining ...