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Title: Final report on accident tolerant fuel performance analysis of APMT-Steel Clad/UO₂ fuel and APMT-Steel Clad/UN-U₃Si₅ fuel concepts

Abstract

In FY2014 our group completed and documented analysis of new Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) concepts using BISON. We have modeled the viability of moving from Zircaloy to stainless steel cladding in traditional light water reactors (LWRs). We have explored the reactivity penalty of this change using the MCNP-based burnup code Monteburns, while attempting to minimize this penalty by increasing the fuel pellet radius and decreasing the cladding thickness. Fuel performance simulations using BISON have also been performed to quantify changes to structural integrity resulting from thinner stainless steel claddings. We account for thermal and irradiation creep, fission gas swelling, thermal swelling and fuel relocation in the models for both Zircaloy and stainless steel claddings. Additional models that account for the lower oxidation stainless steel APMT are also invoked where available. Irradiation data for HT9 is used as a fallback in the absence of appropriate models. In this study the isotopic vectors within each natural element are varied to assess potential reactivity gains if advanced enrichment capabilities were levied towards cladding technologies. Recommendations on cladding thicknesses for a robust cladding as well as the constitutive components of a less penalizing composition are provided. In the first section (section 1-3), we presentmore » results accepted for publication in the 2014 TOPFUEL conference regarding the APMT/UO₂ ATF concept (J. Galloway & C. Unal, Accident Tolerant and Neutronically Favorable LWR Cladding, Proceedings of WRFPM 2014, Sendai, Japan, Paper No.1000050). Next we discuss our preliminary findings from the thermo-mechanical analysis of UN-U₃Si₅ fuel with APMT clad. In this analysis we used models developed from limited data that need to be updated when the irradiation data from ATF-1 test is available. Initial results indicate a swelling rate less than 1.5% is needed to prevent excessive clad stress.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1156842
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-27175
DOE Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; accident tolerant fuel steel clad

Citation Formats

Unal, Cetin, and Galloway, Jack D. Final report on accident tolerant fuel performance analysis of APMT-Steel Clad/UO₂ fuel and APMT-Steel Clad/UN-U₃Si₅ fuel concepts. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.2172/1156842.
Unal, Cetin, & Galloway, Jack D. Final report on accident tolerant fuel performance analysis of APMT-Steel Clad/UO₂ fuel and APMT-Steel Clad/UN-U₃Si₅ fuel concepts. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1156842
Unal, Cetin, and Galloway, Jack D. 2014. "Final report on accident tolerant fuel performance analysis of APMT-Steel Clad/UO₂ fuel and APMT-Steel Clad/UN-U₃Si₅ fuel concepts". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1156842. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1156842.
@article{osti_1156842,
title = {Final report on accident tolerant fuel performance analysis of APMT-Steel Clad/UO₂ fuel and APMT-Steel Clad/UN-U₃Si₅ fuel concepts},
author = {Unal, Cetin and Galloway, Jack D.},
abstractNote = {In FY2014 our group completed and documented analysis of new Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) concepts using BISON. We have modeled the viability of moving from Zircaloy to stainless steel cladding in traditional light water reactors (LWRs). We have explored the reactivity penalty of this change using the MCNP-based burnup code Monteburns, while attempting to minimize this penalty by increasing the fuel pellet radius and decreasing the cladding thickness. Fuel performance simulations using BISON have also been performed to quantify changes to structural integrity resulting from thinner stainless steel claddings. We account for thermal and irradiation creep, fission gas swelling, thermal swelling and fuel relocation in the models for both Zircaloy and stainless steel claddings. Additional models that account for the lower oxidation stainless steel APMT are also invoked where available. Irradiation data for HT9 is used as a fallback in the absence of appropriate models. In this study the isotopic vectors within each natural element are varied to assess potential reactivity gains if advanced enrichment capabilities were levied towards cladding technologies. Recommendations on cladding thicknesses for a robust cladding as well as the constitutive components of a less penalizing composition are provided. In the first section (section 1-3), we present results accepted for publication in the 2014 TOPFUEL conference regarding the APMT/UO₂ ATF concept (J. Galloway & C. Unal, Accident Tolerant and Neutronically Favorable LWR Cladding, Proceedings of WRFPM 2014, Sendai, Japan, Paper No.1000050). Next we discuss our preliminary findings from the thermo-mechanical analysis of UN-U₃Si₅ fuel with APMT clad. In this analysis we used models developed from limited data that need to be updated when the irradiation data from ATF-1 test is available. Initial results indicate a swelling rate less than 1.5% is needed to prevent excessive clad stress.},
doi = {10.2172/1156842},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1156842}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}