Preliminary Content Evaluation of the North Anna High Burn-Up Sister Fuel Rod Segments for Transportation in the 10-160B and NAC-LWT

Technical Report · Tue Aug 09 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1288266· OSTI ID:1288266

Ketusky, E. ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) Program has transported high-burnup nuclear sister fuel rods from a commercial nuclear power plant for purposes of evaluation and testing. The evaluation and testing of high-burnup used nuclear fuel is integral to DOE initiatives to collect information useful in determining the integrity of fuel cladding for future safe transportation of the fuel, and for determining the effects of aging, on the integrity of UNF subjected to extended storage and subsequent transportation. The UFDC Program, in collaboration with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the commercial nuclear industry, has obtained individual used nuclear fuel rods for testing. The rods have been received at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for both separate effects testing (SET) and small-scale testing (SST). To meet the research objectives, testing on multiple 6 inch fuel rod pins cut from the rods at ORNL will be performed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Up to 10 rod equivalents will be shipped. Options were evaluated for multiple shipments using the 10-160B (based on 4.5 rod equivalents) and a single shipment using the NAC-LWT. Based on the original INL/Virginia Power transfer agreement, the rods are assumed to 152 inches in length with a 0.374-inch diameter. This report provides a preliminary content evaluation for use of the 10-160B and NAC-LWT for transporting those fuel rod pins from ORNL to PNNL. This report documents the acceptability of using these packagings to transport the fuel segments from ORNL to PNNL based on the following evaluations: enrichment, A2 evaluation, Pu-239 FGE evaluation, heat load, shielding (both gamma and neutron), and content weight/structural evaluation.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC09-08SR22470
• OSTI ID: 1288266
• Report Number(s): SRNL-STI-2016-00118; TRN: US1601688
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
42 ENGINEERING
SPENT FUELS
FUEL RODS
EVALUATION
LAND TRANSPORT
TESTING
NEUTRONS
GAMMA RADIATION
PLUTONIUM 239
BURNUP
FUEL CANS
HEATING LOAD
TIME DEPENDENCE
ENRICHMENT
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SHIELDING
STORAGE
WEIGHT
PERFORMANCE
SAFETY
NORTH ANNA-1 REACTOR
High burn up
Sister Rods
10-160B
NAC-LWT