Transient fission-gas behavior in uranium nitride fuel under proposed space applications. Doctoral thesis
In order to investigate whether fission gas swelling and release would be significant factors in a space based nuclear reactor operating under the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, the finite element program REDSTONE (Routine For Evaluating Dynamic Swelling in Transient Operational Nuclear Environments) was developed to model the 1-D, spherical geometry diffusion equations describing transient fission gas behavior in a single uranium nitride fuel grain. The equations characterized individual bubbles, rather than bubble groupings. This limits calculations to those scenarios where low temperatures, low burnups, or both were present. Instabilities in the bubble radii calculations forced the implementation of additional constraints limiting the bubble sizes to minimum and maximum (equilibrium) radii. The validity of REDSTONE calculations were checked against analytical solutions for internal consistency and against experimental studies for agreement with swelling and release results.
- Research Organization:
- Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 7281314
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A-252577/2/XAB; AFIT/CI/CIA-92-001D
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
SPACE POWER REACTORS
REACTOR MATERIALS
URANIUM NITRIDES
SWELLING
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
BUBBLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DIFFUSION
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
FISSION PRODUCTS
GASES
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
R CODES
REACTOR SAFETY
TRANSIENTS
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
COMPUTER CODES
FLUIDS
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
MOBILE REACTORS
NATIONAL DEFENSE
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PNICTIDES
POWER REACTORS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
REACTORS
SAFETY
SIMULATION
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety
210600 - Power Reactors
Auxiliary
Mobile Package
& Transportable