Behavior of low-burnup metallic fuels for the integral fast reactor at elevated temperatures in ex-reactor tests

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:6209370

Tsai, Hanchung; Liu, Yung Y; Wang, Da-Yung; Kramer, J M

A series of ex-reactor heating tests on low burnup U-26wt.%Pu-10wt.%Zr metallic fuel for the PRISM reactor was conducted to evaluate fuel/cladding metallurgical interaction and its effect on cladding integrity at elevated temperatures. The reaction between the fuel and cladding caused liquid-phase formation and dissolution of the inner surface of the cladding. The rate of cladding penetration was below the existing design correlation, which provides a conservative margin to cladding failure. In a test which enveloped a wide range of postulated reactor transient events, a substantial temporal cladding integrity margin was demonstrated for an intact, whole fuel pin. The cause of the eventual pin breach was reaction-induced cladding thinning combined with fission-gas pressure loading. The behavior of the breached pin was benign. 7 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6209370
• Report Number(s): ANL/CP-71935; CONF-911001-17; ON: DE91018647
• Resource Relation: Conference: International conference on fast reactor systems and fuel cycles, Kyoto (Japan), 27 Oct - 1 Nov 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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