Radiochemical Assays of Irradiated VVER-440 Fuel for Use in Spent Fuel Burnup Credit Activities
The objective of this spent fuel burnup credit work was to study and describe a VVER-440 reactor spent fuel assembly (FA) initial state before irradiation, its operational irradiation history and the resulting radionuclide distribution in the fuel assembly after irradiation. This work includes the following stages: (1) to pick out and select a specific spent (irradiated) FA for examination; (2) to describe the FA initial state before irradiation; (3) to describe the irradiation history, including thermal calculations; (4) to examine the burnup distribution of select radionuclides along the FA height and cross-section; (5) to examine the radionuclide distributions; (6) to determine the Kr-85 release into the plenum; (7) to select and prepare FA rod specimens for destructive examinations; (8) to determine the radionuclide compositions, isotope masses and burnup in the rod specimens; and (9) to analyze, document and process the results. The specific workscope included the destructive assay (DA) of spent fuel assembly rod segments with an {approx}38.5 MWd/KgU burnup from a single VVER-440 fuel assembly from the Novovorenezh reactor in Russia. Based on irradiation history criteria, four rods from the fuel assembly were selected and removed from the assembly for examination. Next, 8 sections were cut from the four rods and sent for destructive analysis of radionuclides by radiochemical analyses. The results were documented in a series of seven reports over a period of {approx}1 1/2 years.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15016256
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-TR-212202; TRN: US0502135
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PDF-FILE: 456 ; SIZE: 15.5 MBYTES; PBD: 25 Apr 2005
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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