Analysis of capsule HFR-B1 graphite-corrosion data

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/714916· OSTI ID:714916

Richards, M B; Gillespie, A G

The recently completed irradiation of capsule HFR-B1 in the high-flux reactor at the Pitten Establishment in The Netherlands provided some excellent data for fission-product release. The data were obtained under irradiation and temperature conditions close to those expected during normal operation of the Modular High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (MHTGR). Some of the tests at Petten were designed to measure release of fission gases during hydrolysis of failed fuel. Hydrolysis was initiated by injecting known amounts of water vapor into the capsule sweep gas. The measured concentrations of CO and CO{sub 2} in the capsule sweep gas indicated that a non-negligible amount of graphite corrosion was also occurring during the hydrolysis tests. Hence, these measurements provide some unique data for in-pile corrosion of grade H-4541 graphite by steam. In the present report, an analysis of graphite corrosion during the Petten hydrolysis tests is described. The calculations were performed using the REACT program, which is based on an improved corrosion model. The REACT program was developed as part of a research program at the University of California, San Diego, and is in operational status in the General Atomics (GA) Production Code Library. Predictions obtained with REACT show excellent agreement with the Petten graphite-corrosion data. This good agreement indicates that the currently used correlation for the steam-graphite reaction rate, which was obtained from out-of-pile measurements, may also be used to predict in-pile corrosion with good accuracy. 8 refs., 19 figs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-89SF17885
• OSTI ID: 714916
• Report Number(s): DOE/HTGR-88510; TRN: US200509%%920
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 1 Jan 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ACCURACY
CORROSION
FISSION
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GASES
GRAPHITE
HYDROLYSIS
IRRADIATION
PRODUCTION
REACTION KINETICS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
STEAM
WATER VAPOR
R CODES
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
HTGR TYPE REACTORS
HFR REACTOR
CAPSULES
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
FUEL ELEMENTS
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON DIOXIDE
TESTING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION