Accident Tolerant Fuel Analysis
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
Safety is central to the design, licensing, operation, and economics of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Consequently, the ability to better characterize and quantify safety margin holds the key to improved decision making about light water reactor design, operation, and plant life extension. A systematic approach to characterization of safety margins and the subsequent margins management options represents a vital input to the licensee and regulatory analysis and decision making that will be involved. The purpose of the Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) Pathway research and development (R&D) is to support plant decisions for risk-informed margins management by improving economics and reliability, and sustaining safety, of current NPPs. Goals of the RISMC Pathway are twofold: (1) Develop and demonstrate a risk-assessment method coupled to safety margin quantification that can be used by NPP decision makers as part of their margin recovery strategies. (2) Create an advanced “RISMC toolkit” that enables more accurate representation of NPP safety margin. In order to carry out the R&D needed for the Pathway, the Idaho National Laboratory is performing a series of case studies that will explore methods- and tools-development issues, in addition to being of current interest in their own right. One such study is a comparative analysis of safety margins of plants using different fuel cladding types: specifically, a comparison between current-technology Zircaloy cladding and a notional “accident-tolerant” (e.g., SiC-based) cladding. The present report begins the process of applying capabilities that are still under development to the problem of assessing new fuel designs. The approach and lessons learned from this case study will be included in future Technical Basis Guides produced by the RISMC Pathway. These guides will be the mechanism for developing the specifications for RISMC tools and for defining how plant decision makers should propose and evaluate margin recovery strategies.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1168647
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-14-33200; TRN: US1500009
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
MATERIALS RECOVERY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
REACTOR SAFETY
SAFETY MARGINS
NUCLEAR FUELS
CLADDING
SILICON CARBIDES
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZIRCALOY
FUELS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMICS
HAZARDS
OPERATION
RISK ASSESSMENT
CALCULATION METHODS
REACTOR LICENSING
RELIABILITY
RISMC
Accident-Tolerant Fuel