REGAL International Program: Analysis of experimental data for depletion code validation

Journal Article · Tue Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Annals of Nuclear Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2022.109057· OSTI ID:1863285

Eysermans, J. ^[1]; Verwerft, M. ^[2]; Govers, K. ^[3]; Ichou, R. ^[4]; Ilas, G. ^[5]; Meryturek, U. ^[5]; Messaoudi, N. ^[2]; Romojaro, P. ^[2]; Slosse, N. ^[6]

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1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol (Belgium)
2. Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol (Belgium)
3. Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol (Belgium); Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), Brussels (Belgium)
4. Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), Fontenay-aux-Roses (France)
5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
6. Tractebel Engineering S.A., Brussels (Belgium)

The Rod-Extremity and Gadolinia AnaLysis (REGAL) Program is a joint international effort to expand the nuclide inventory experimental data for irradiated nuclear fuel, with a specific focus on addressing two challenging needs associated with the characterization of modern, high duty, nuclear fuel. The first challenge is filling the gaps in experimental nuclide inventory data for gadolinia (UO₂–Gd₂O₃) fuel rods. The huge absorption cross sections of Gd-155 and Gd-157 in the Gd dopant in these rods lead to atypical spatial self-shielding patterns and have an impact on the neutronic environment within the fuel assembly compared to regular UO₂ fuel rods. Additionally, the second challenge is investigating the impact of burnup gradients at rod extremities on fuel composition and neutron leakage, to provide relevant experimental data for assessing computational capabilities to model such impact. A benchmark has been defined as a first step in the development of best-estimate models in the preliminary phase of the experimental data evaluation. Comparison of experimental results obtained in Phase I of the program for two measured pressurized water reactor (PWR) samples, one UO₂ and one UO₂–Gd₂O₃ sample, with calculated results obtained with different computational tools based on the defined benchmark are presented and discussed.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1863285
• Journal Information: Annals of Nuclear Energy, Journal Name: Annals of Nuclear Energy Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 172; ISSN 0306-4549
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
Gadolinia fuel
depletion
predictive modeling
reactor physics