FUEL CYCLE PROGRAM. A BOILING WATER REACTOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. Tenth Quarterly Progress Report, October-December 1962

Technical Report · Mon Jan 14 04:00:00 EST 1963

OSTI ID:4694551

Howard, C.L. comp.

Progress in the fuel cycle program to improve the technological limits of boiling-water reactors is reported. Irradiation of special and basic fuel assemblies is being carried out in VBWR for power-limit tests. A leak in the VBWR recirculation piping resulted primarily from mechanical and thermal plastic strain cycling. Metallographic examination of Zircaloy-clad fuel rods at the points of fretting against the wire spacers showed that mechanical wear rather than chemical attack is the dominant effect observed. Two spacers were designed to prevent fretting. Stainless steel-clad UO/sub 2/ fuel was fabricated. Meaaurements in a stability loop of oscillations of flow velocity at the entrance to the electrical heater section showed that the measured frequencies did not match the calculated resonant frequencies. This was interpreted to mean that the loop was being driven by some excitation such as the dynamic boiling process. A four-rod test section is being fabricated for heat-transfer and fluid-dynamic tests. Chemical analyses of the radial variation in isotopic composition within a fuel rod are in progress. (M.C.G.)

• Research Organization: General Electric Co. Atomic Power Equipment Dept., San Jose, Calif.
• NSA Number: NSA-17-021221
• OSTI ID: 4694551
• Report Number(s): GEAP-4159
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BOILING
BURNUP
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COOLANT LOOPS
ELECTRICITY
ENRICHMENT
EXCITATION
FABRICATION
FAILURES
FLUID FLOW
FUEL CANS
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUELS
HEAT TRANSFER
HEATING
IRRADIATION
ISOTOPES
LEAKS
MEASURED VALUES
METALLOGRAPHY
OSCILLATIONS
PIPES
PLANNING
POWER
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
RESONANCE
RODS
SPACERS
STABILITY
STAINLESS STEELS
TESTING
THERMAL STRESSES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
VARIATIONS
VBWR
VELOCITY
WATER MODERATOR
WEAR
WIRES
ZIRCALOY