Study on in-pile performance of silicide fuel under power transient

Yanagisawa, Kazuaki

Proceedings of 31st International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR 2009) (Internet), 11 Pages, 2010/03

Power transient test was conducted on un-irradiated silicide mini-plate fuels. A failure threshold of tested fuel is revealed between 82 and 94 cal per gram fuel plate. Failure mechanism of a through plate cracking is a thermal stress caused by a large temperature drop (T 94C), combined with a rapid quench (0.13s). Additionally, a water channel closure (plate bowing) was studied by triplet and single plate configurations as a function of peak cladding surface temperature (PCST). From this study adaptability of licensing criteria (228C) applied to the water channel closure of Japan Research Reactor-3 (JRR-3) and Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR) silicide fuels are experimentally confirmed.