A regulatory assessment of test data for reactivity accidents
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States); and others
An assessment is made of recent test data from France, Japan, and Russia, and of earlier test data from the U.S., in relation to the safety analysis performed for power reactors in the U.S. Considerations include mode of cladding failure, oxidation, hydriding, and pulse-width effects. From the data trend and from these considerations, it is concluded that the cladding failure threshold for fuel rods with moderate-to-high burnup is roughly 100 cal/g for BWRs and PWRs. Realistic plant calculations suggest that cladding failure would not occur for rod-ejection or rod-drop accidents and, therefore, that pellet fragmentation and enhanced fission product release from fuel pellets should not have to be considered in the safety analysis for these accidents. However, the data base is sparse and contains a lot of uncertainty.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 539845
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ET/CP-94605; CONF-970315-; ON: DE97008869; TRN: 98:008391
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ANS international topical meeting on light water reactor fuel performance, Portland, OR (United States), 2-6 Mar 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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