Irradiation Planning for Fully-Ceramic Micro-encsapsulated fuel in ATR at LWR-relevant conditions: year-end report on FY-2011
This report presents the estimation of required ATR irradiation levels for the DB-FCM fuel design (fueled with Pu and MAs). The fuel and assembly designs are those considered in a companion report [R. S. Sen et al., FCR&D-2011- 00037 or INL/EXT-11-23269]. These results, pertaining to the DB-FCM fuel, are definitive in as much as the design of said fuel is definitive. In addition to the work performed, as required, for DB-FCM fuel, work has started in a preliminary fashion on single-cell UO2 and UN fuels. These latter activities go beyond the original charter of this project and although the corresponding work is incomplete, significant progress has been achieved. However, in this context, all that has been achieved is only preliminary because the corresponding fuel designs are neither finalized nor optimized. In particular, the UO2 case is unlikely to result in a viable fuel design if limited to enrichment at or under 20 weight % in U-235. The UN fuel allows reasonable length cycles and is likely to make an optimal design possible. Despite being limited to preliminary designs and offering only preliminary conclusions, the irradiation planning tasks for UO2 and UN fuels that are summarized in this report are useful to the overall goal of devising and deploying FCM-LWR fuel since the methods acquired and tested in this project and the overall procedure for planning will be available for planning tests for the finalized fuel design. Indeed, once the fuel design is finalized and the expected burnup level is determined, the methodology that has been assembled will allow the prompt finalization of the neutronic planning of the irradiation experiment and would provide guidance on the expected experimental performance of the fuel. Deviations from the expected behavior will then have to be analyzed and the outcome of the analysis may be corrections or modifications for the assessment models as well as, possibly, fuel design modifications, and perhaps even variation of experimental control for future experimental phases. Besides the prediction of irradiation times, preliminary work was carried out on other aspects of irradiation planning. In particular, a method for evaluating the interplay of depletion, material performance modeling and irradiation is identified by reference to a companion report. Another area that was addressed in a preliminary fashion is the identification and selection of a strategy for the physical and mechanical design of the irradiation experiments. The principal conclusion is that the similarity between the FCM fuel and the fuel compacts of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant prismatic design are strong enough to warrant using irradiation hardware designs and instrumentation adapted from the AGR irradiation tests. Modifications, if found necessary, will probably be few and small, except as pertains to the water environment and its implications on the use of SiC cladding or SiC matrix with no additional cladding.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1042358
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-11-23450; TRN: US1202850
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Advanced Fuels for LWRs: Fully-Ceramic Microencapsulated and Related Concepts FY 2012 Interim Report
AREVA Team Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuels Concepts (Phase 1A Final Report)
Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
42 ENGINEERING
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BURNUP
DESIGN
FORECASTING
IRRADIATION
MODIFICATIONS
PERFORMANCE
PLANNING
SIMULATION
WATER
damage accumulation
depletion effects
Displacement damage cross section
dpa
irradiation planning