Status report of advanced cladding modeling work to assess cladding performance under accident conditions

Technical Report · Sun Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1122118· OSTI ID:1122118

Merrill, Brad J. ^[1]; Bragg-Sitton, Shannon M. ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Scoping simulations performed using a severe accident code can be applied to investigate the influence of advanced materials on beyond design basis accident progression and to identify any existing code limitations. In 2012 an effort was initiated to develop a numerical capability for understanding the potential safety advantages that might be realized during severe accident conditions by replacing Zircaloy components in light water reactors (LWRs) with silicon carbide (SiC) components. To this end, a version of the MELCOR code, under development at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico (SNL/NM), was modified by replacing Zircaloy for SiC in the MELCOR reactor core oxidation and material properties routines. The modified version of MELCOR was benchmarked against available experimental data to ensure that present SiC oxidation theory in air and steam were correctly implemented in the code. Additional modifications have been implemented in the code in 2013 to improve the specificity in defining components fabricated from non-standard materials. An overview of these modifications and the status of their implementation are summarized below.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1122118
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--13-30206
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
MELCOR
accident tolerant fuel
severe accident
silicon carbide