French investigations of high burnup effect on LOCA thermomecanical behavior. Part two. Oxidation and quenching experiments under simulated LOCA conditions with high burnup clad material
- IPSN, Cadarache (France)
- EDF/SCMI, Chinon (France); and others
In the frame of the high burnup fuel studies to support a possible extension of the current discharge burnup limit, experimental programs have been undertaken, jointly by EDF and IPSN in order to study the thermal-shock behavior of high burnup fuel claddings under typical LOCA conditions. The TAGUS program used unirradiated cladding samples, bare or bearing a pre-corrosion state simulating the end-of-life state of high burnup fuel claddings: the TAGCIR program used actually irradiated cladding samples taken from high burnup rods irradiated over 5 cycles in a commercial EDF PWR and having reached a rod burnup close to 60 GWd/tU. The thermal-shock failure tests consisted in oxidizing the cladding samples under steam flow, on both inner and outer faces or on the outer face alone, and subjecting them to a final water quench. The heating was provided by an inductive furnace the power of which being regulated through monitoring of the sample surface temperature with use of a single-wave optical pyrometer. Analysis of the irradiated tests (TAGCIR series) evidenced an increased oxidation rate as compared to similar tests on unirradiated samples. Results of the quenching tests series on unirradiated and irradiated samples are plotted under the usual presentation of failure maps relative to the oxidation parameters ECR (equivalent cladding reacted) or e{sub {beta}} (thickness of the remaining beta phase layer) as a function of the oxidation temperature. Comparison of the failure limits for irradiated specimens to those for unirradiated specimens indicates a lower brittleness under two side oxidation and possibly the opposite under one-side oxidation. The tentative analysis of the oxidation and quenching tests results on irradiated samples reveals the important role played by the hydrogen charged during in-reactor corrosion on the oxidation kinetics and the failure bearing capability of the cladding under LOCA transient conditions.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 468650
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CP-0157-Vol.1; CONF-9610202-Vol.1; ON: TI96014720; TRN: 97:008527
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 24. water reactor safety information meeting, Bethesda, MD (United States), 21-23 Oct 1996; Other Information: PBD: Jan 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the twenty-fourth water reactor safety information meeting. Volume 1: Plenary session; High burnup fuel; Containment and structural aging; Monteleone, S. [comp.] [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)]; PB: 372 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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