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Title: Internal fuel motion in annular fuel as an inherent safety shutdown mechanism during hypothetical LMFBR accidents

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5114965

It has been postulated that the use of annular fuel would provide an inherent safety shutdown mechanism during hypothetical LMFBR accidents by providing a pathway for molten fuel to be ejected from the active core region to the fission gas plenum. In this paper, a preliminary assessment of the whole-core reactivity consequences of internal fuel motion in annular fuel during hypothetical transient overpower accidents was performed using the MELT-IIIB/FUMO-E code. It was concluded that internal fuel relocation is an effective inherent safety shutdown mechanism for high reactivity ramp rates on the order of 3$/s. Improvement of the transient fission gas release modeling might expand the range of effectivenwss to substantially lower reactivity ramp rates.

Research Organization:
Hanford Engineering Development Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76FF02170
OSTI ID:
5114965
Report Number(s):
HEDL-SA-2606-FP; CONF-820704-24; ON: DE82020513
Resource Relation:
Conference: International topical meeting on LMFBR safety, Lyon, France, 18 Jul 1982; Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English