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Title: Behavior of fission product tellurium under severe accident conditions

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6188157

Fission product release tests at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have provided new experimental data that help characterize the behavior of tellurium under severe light-water reactor (LWR) accident conditions. The release of tellurium from the fuel rods is dependent upon the rate and extent of cladding oxidation. Tellurium has been found to be considerably retained by metallic Zircaloy cladding at test temperatures up to 1975/sup 0/C. The results indicate that the tellurium is bound by the Zircaloy cladding as zirconium telluride, but once the available zirconium metal is oxidized by the steam, tellurium is released in favor of continued zirconium oxide formation. The collection behavior of the released tellurium indicates that it is probably released from the fuel rods as SnTe and CsTe, rather than as elemental tellurium.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
6188157
Report Number(s):
CONF-860204-17; ON: TI86004788
Resource Relation:
Conference: International ANS/ENS topical meeting on thermal reactor safety, San Diego, CA, USA, 2 Feb 1986
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English