Sensitivity analysis of FeCrAl cladding and U3Si2 fuel under accident conditions

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1364485· OSTI ID:1364485

Gamble, Kyle Allan Lawrence ^[1]; Hales, Jason Dean ^[1]

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

The purpose of this milestone report is to highlight the results of sensitivity analyses performed on two accident tol- erant fuel concepts: U3Si2 fuel and FeCrAl cladding. The BISON fuel performance code under development at Idaho National Laboratory was coupled to Sandia National Laboratories’ DAKOTA software to perform the sensitivity analyses. Both Loss of Coolant (LOCA) and Station blackout (SBO) scenarios were analyzed using main effects studies. The results indicate that for FeCrAl cladding the input parameters with greatest influence on the output metrics of interest (fuel centerline temperature and cladding hoop strain) during the LOCA were the isotropic swelling and fuel enrichment. For U3Si2 the important inputs were found to be the intergranular diffusion coefficient, specific heat, and fuel thermal conductivity. For the SBO scenario, Young’s modulus was found to be influential in FeCrAl in addition to the isotropic swelling and fuel enrichment. Contrarily to the LOCA case, the specific heat of U3Si2 was found to have no effect during the SBO. The intergranular diffusion coefficient and fuel thermal conductivity were still found to be of importance. The results of the sensitivity analyses have identified areas where further research is required including fission gas behavior in U3Si2 and irradiation swelling in FeCrAl. Moreover, the results highlight the need to perform the sensitivity analyses on full length fuel rods for SBO scenarios.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1364485
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--16-39663
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
Accident Tolerant Fuel
BISON
CLADDING
DAKOTA
FUEL RODS
FUELS
LOCA
LOSS OF COOLANT
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
STATION BLACKOUT