Preliminary modeling of accident tolerant fuel concepts under accident conditions

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

OSTI ID:22765227

Gamble, K. A.; Hales, J. D. ^[1]

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1. Fuel Modeling and Simulation, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3840 (United States)

In this paper, we present simulations of two proposed accident tolerant fuel systems for light-water reactors: U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} fuel with Zircaloy-4 cladding, and UO{sub 2} fuel with FeCrAl cladding. The simulations investigate the fuel performance response of the proposed ATF systems under Loss of Coolant (LOCA) and Station Blackout (SBO) conditions using the BISON code. It was observed that U{sub 3}Si{sub 2}/Zircaloy4 and UO{sub 2}/FeCrAl have superior performance during a 90 s LOCA than traditional UO{sub 2}/Zircaloy4 fuel rods. This is based upon reduced fuel centerline temperatures and lower cladding strains experienced during the LOCA. For the postulated SBO analyzed in this work, it was found that the centerline temperature and cladding strains remained well below any values of concern. This is attributed to the shortness of the rod studied and how the coolant channel model treats the inlet as the bottom of the rod. An analysis of a full-length fuel rod is required to obtain improved qualitative comparisons between the 3 systems under SBO conditions. Sensitivity analyses have been performed using Sandia National Laboratories' DAKOTA software to determine which input parameters (e.g., fuel specific heat) have the greatest influence on the output metrics of interest (e.g., fuel centerline temperature). Early results indicate that each concept has significant advantages as well as areas of concern. Further work is required prior to formulating the proposition report for the Advanced Fuels Campaign.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22765227
• Resource Relation: Conference: TOP FUEL 2016: LWR fuels fuels with enhanced safety and performance, Boise, ID (United States), 11-15 Sep 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 15 refs.; Related Information: In: TOP FUEL 2016 Proceedings| 1670 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ACCIDENT-TOLERANT NUCLEAR FUELS
B CODES
CLADDING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COOLANTS
D CODES
FUEL RODS
FUEL SYSTEMS
LOSS OF COOLANT
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SPECIFIC HEAT
STATION BLACKOUT
STRAINS
URANIUM DIOXIDE
URANIUM SILICIDES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZIRCALOY 4