Test Plan for the 1400°C Heating Test of AGR-3/4 Compact 10-4
Post irradiation examination (PIE) and heating tests of tristructural isotropic (TRISO)-coated fuel particles, fuel compacts, and graphite from Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) irradiation experiment AGR 3/4 is in progress. The AGR-3/4 test train consisted of twelve separate capsules irradiated in the northeast flux trap of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) from December 14, 2011, to April 12, 2014 (Collin 2015). This test plan describes the heating test of AGR-3/4 Compact 10-4. The test will involve heating the compact in the Fuel Accident Condition Simulator (FACS) furnace to a peak temperature of 1400°C while collecting fission products released from the compact for subsequent analysis. One of several features of AGR-3/4 that set it apart from AGR-1 and AGR-2 is the incorporation of 20 designed-to-fail (DTF) particles in each compact. The fuel kernels in the DTF particles were coated only with a thin (20 µm thick) pyrocarbon layer having high anisotropy such that the coating would most-likely fail during the irradiation, resulting in up to 20 exposed kernels per compact. One of the main goals of this test is to assess the retention of fission products in the exposed kernels and the surrounding graphitic matrix material comprising the compact. Future heating tests will expose a number of AGR-3/4 compacts at different temperatures in the FACS furnace (Demkowicz 2017). Additionally, the ability may be developed to heat re-irradiated AGR-3/4 compacts to allow a determination of the retention of short-lived fission products I-131 and Xe-133.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1569287
- Report Number(s):
- INL/MIS-17-43961-Rev000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Test Plan for the 1600°C Heating Test of AGR-3/4 Compact 3-2
Test Plan for the 1200°C Heating Test of AGR-3/4 Compact 10-2