Capabilities development for transient testing of advanced nuclear fuels at TREAT

Conference · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:22750093

Woolstenhulme, N. E.; Baker, C. C.; Bess, J. D.; Davis, C. B.; Hill, C. M.; Housley, G. K.; Jensen, C. B.; Jerred, N. D.; O'Brien, R. C.; Snow, S. D.; Wachs, D. M. ^[1]

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1. Nuclear Science and Technology Division, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

The TREAT facility is a unique capability at the Idaho National Laboratory currently being prepared for resumption of nuclear transient testing. TREAT is an air-cooled reactor where the driver core is made up of urania dispersed in graphite blocks and encapsulated in zirconium alloy cans. In addition to the reactor itself, the foundation for TREAT's capabilities will also include a suite of irradiation vehicles and supporting infrastructure to provide the desired specimen boundary conditions while supporting a variety of instrumentation needs. Although TREAT historically supported all kinds of nuclear fuels, including LWR's, SFR's, space nuclear propulsion, research reactor plate-type fuels, and even fuels for use in the driver core of other transient test reactors, the majority of TREAT's more-recent experiment programs revolved around SFR's and sodium-environment test capsules and loops. MK-series loop experiment-specific test trains could be outfitted with a variety of instruments to monitor test and specimen conditions while the fast neutron hodoscope collected information about fuel movement before, during, and after transient excursions. The SERTTA (Static Environment Rodlet Transient Test Apparatuses) devices will be general purpose vehicles capable of providing inert gas, water (up to PWR conditions), steam, or perhaps even molten sodium environments within vessel-like capsules. The Multi-SERTTA vehicle design is particularly novel as it makes use of the full active core length in TREAT to test four small rodlets (∼12 cm length), each within its own hermetic boundary, it will be capable of housing pre-irradiated fuel specimens. Additional modules and adaptations of Multi-SERTTA will enable rapid loop pressure blowdown to simulate LOCA conditions. The Super-SERTTA, akin to the Multi-SERTTA will offer more possibilities for simulating transient phenomena.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22750093
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
LOSS OF COOLANT
RESEARCH REACTORS
SPENT FUELS
TRANSIENTS
TREAT REACTOR
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS