Stability of LMR oxide pins and blanket rods during run-beyond-cladding-break (RBCB) operation
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Reactor Materials Technology, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuels Development Corp., Ibaraki-ken (Japan)
Since 1981, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation of Japan have collaborated on an operational reliability testing program in the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. The tests were designed to determine the irradiation behavior of liquid-metal reactor (LMR) oxide pins and blanket rods during steady-state, transient, and run-beyond-claddin-breach (RBCB) operation. Phase I tests completed in 1987 involved current LMR oxide designs and claddings; the phase II tests begun in 1988 concentrate on advanced LMR designs, large-diameter pins (7.5 mm), and advance cladding alloys. The cladding breaches in these tests have been readily detected by fission-gas and delayed-neutron (DN) precursor release. The condition of the fuel pin has been monitored by these releases during RBCB operation. A variety of failures have been intentionally studied in the RBCB portion of the program for operating times of up to 142 full-power days; also, several failure types have been incidentally experienced during the transient tests. Types of failure have included those induced by gas-pressure loading either naturally or by prethinning of the cladding defects, and fuel-cladding mechanical interaction (FCMI)-induced failures or secondary failures caused by the formation of low-density fuel-sodium reaction product (FSRP). This paper summarizes this experience with regard to LMR oxide fuel stability during RBCB operation.
- OSTI ID:
- 6983309
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921102-; CODEN: TANSAO
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 66; Conference: Joint American Nuclear Society (ANS)/European Nuclear Society (ENS) international meeting on fifty years of controlled nuclear chain reaction: past, present, and future, Chicago, IL (United States), 15-20 Nov 1992; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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