An evaluation of the nuclear fuel performance code BISON

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22212796

Perez, D. M.; Williamson, R. L.; Novascone, S. R.; Larson, T. K.; Hales, J. D.; Spencer, B. W.; Pastore, G. ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States)

BISON is a modern finite-element based nuclear fuel performance code that has been under development at the Idaho National Laboratory (USA) since 2009. The code is applicable to both steady and transient fuel behavior and is used to analyze either 2D axisymmetric or 3D geometries. BISON has been applied to a variety of fuel forms including LWR fuel rods, TRISO-coated fuel particles, and metallic fuel in both rod and plate geometries. Code validation is currently in progress, principally by comparison to instrumented LWR fuel rods and other well known fuel performance codes. Results from several assessment cases are reported, with emphasis on fuel centerline temperatures at various stages of fuel life, fission gas release, and clad deformation during pellet clad mechanical interaction (PCMI). BISON comparisons to fuel centerline temperature measurements are very good at beginning of life and reasonable at high burnup. Although limited to date, fission gas release comparisons are very good. Comparisons of rod diameter following significant power ramping are also good and demonstrate BISON's unique ability to model discrete pellet behavior and accurately predict clad ridging from PCMI. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22212796
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
AXIAL SYMMETRY
BURNUP
COATED FUEL PARTICLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DEFORMATION
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FISSION PRODUCT RELEASE
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL RODS
GEOMETRY
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
PELLETS
PERFORMANCE
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
TRANSIENTS