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Title: Re-evaluation of Spent Nuclear Fuel Assay Data for the Three Mile Island Unit 1 Reactor and Application to Code Validation

Journal Article · · Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)
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  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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Destructive radiochemical assay measurements of spent nuclear fuel rod segments from an assembly irradiated in the Three Mile Island unit 1 (TMI-1) pressurized water reactor have been performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Assay data are reported for five samples from two fuel rods of the same assembly. The TMI-1 assembly was a 15 X 15 design with an initial enrichment of 4.013 wt% 235U, and the measured samples achieved burnups between 45.5 and 54.5 gigawatt days per metric ton of initial uranium (GWd/t). Measurements were performed mainly using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after elemental separation via high performance liquid chromatography. High precision measurements were achieved using isotope dilution techniques for many of the lanthanides, uranium, and plutonium isotopes. Measurements are reported for more than 50 different isotopes and 16 elements. One of the two TMI-1 fuel rods measured in this work had been measured previously by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and these data have been widely used to support code and nuclear data validation. Recently, ORNL provided an important opportunity to independently cross check results against previous measurements performed at ANL. The measured nuclide concentrations are used to validate burnup calculations using the SCALE nuclear systems modeling and simulation code suite. These results show that the new measurements provide reliable benchmark data for computer code validation.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1223651
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1396943
Journal Information:
Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford), Vol. 87, Issue 2; ISSN 0306-4549
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (9)

SCALE 6: Comprehensive Nuclear Safety Analysis Code System journal May 2011
ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology journal December 2006
ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data journal December 2011
Isotopic Depletion and Decay Methods and Analysis Capabilities in SCALE journal May 2011
Analysis of Experimental Data for High Burnup PWR Spent Fuel Isotopic Validation - Vandellos II Reactor report January 2011
Validation of new depletion capabilities and ENDF/B-VII data libraries in SCALE journal August 2012
Approach for Validating Actinide and Fission Product Compositions for Burnup Credit Criticality Safety Analyses journal November 2014
Analysis of high burnup spent nuclear fuel by ICP-MS journal February 2005
Nuclide analysis in high burnup fuel samples irradiated in Vandellós 2 journal July 2010

Cited By (1)

Rapid measurements of 235U fission product isotope ratios using an online, high-pressure ion chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry protocol with comparison to isotopic depletion models journal February 2019

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Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
Three Mile Island unit 1 reactor
spent fuel radiochemical analysis
inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry with isotopic dilution
isotopic assay benchmark data
SCALE nuclear systems modeling and simulation code