Extended Burnup Demonstration Reactor Fuels Program. Annual progress report, April 1983-March 1984. [BWR]

Technical Report · Thu Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:5463188

Exarhos, C A

The US Department of Energy, Consumers Power Company, Exxon Nuclear Company, and General Public Utilities Nuclear Corporation have participated since 1979 in a cooperative Extended Burnup Demonstration Program. Under the program, standard ENC-fabricated reload fuel in the Big Rock Point and Oyster Creek reactor cores has been irradiated to discharge burnups at or beyond 35,000 MWD/MTU, one to two cycles beyond its originally projected exposure life. The program provides for examination of the fuel at poolside before and after each extended burnup cycle as well as for limited destructive hot cell examination. The 1984 progress report covers work performed under the EBD program between April 1983 and March 1984. Major milestones reached during the period include completion of a hot cell examination on four high burnup rods from Big Rock Point and of a poolside on the Oyster Creek EBD fuel at discharge. The hot cell examination of four rods at burnups to 37.2 GWD/MTU confirmed poolside measurements on the same fuel, showing the urania and gadolinia-bearing fuel rods to be in excellent condition. No major cladding degradation, pellet restructuring, or pellet-clad interaction was found in any of the samples examined. The Oyster Creek fuel, examined at an assembly average exposure of 34.5 GWD/MTU, showed good performance with regard to both diametral creepdown and clad oxide accumulation.

• Research Organization: Consumers Power Co., Jackson, MI (USA); Exxon Nuclear Co., Inc., Richland, WA (USA); GPU Nuclear Corp., Parsippany, NJ (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-79ET34006
• OSTI ID: 5463188
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/34006-16; XN-NF-84-77; ON: DE85014300
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210100* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
BURNUP
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUEL CYCLE
FUEL MANAGEMENT
GADOLINIUM COMPOUNDS
GADOLINIUM OXIDES
INSPECTION
MICROSTRUCTURE
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
RARE EARTH COMPOUNDS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR CORES
REACTORS
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
URANIUM DIOXIDE
URANIUM OXIDES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS