Poolside examination of gadolinia lead test assemblies after two cycles of irradiation

Technical Report · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5626941

Newman, L W; Holman, P L; Mayer, J T; Papazoglou, T P; Pyecha, T D; Aadland, P C

The Babcock and Wilcox Company, Duke Power Company, and the United States Department of Energy are participating in an extended burnup project involving the irradiation and examination of an advanced fuel assembly design for pressurized water reactors. This advanced fuel assembly includes rods containing a UO/sub 2/-Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ fuel and burnable absorber mixture along with other design features that enhance fuel perforemance and uranium utilization such as annular pellets, annealed guide tubes, Zircaloy intermediate grids, and a removable upper end fitting. The goal of the program is to extend the burnup of pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies to a batch-average burnup of 50,000 MWd/mtU. To achieve this goal, five lead test assemblies were designed, manufactured, characterized, and inserted for irradiation in Oconee Unit 1 cycle 8. One lead test assembly received a burnup of 13,900 MWd/mtU by its discharge at the end of cycle 8; the remaining four received a burnup of 16,000 MWd/mtU after one cycle and 31,800 MWd/mtU after two cycles. These four remaining lead test assemblies are in their third cycle and are to receive a burnup of approximately 46,000 MWd/mtU by the end of Oconee Unit 1 cycle 10. To track the performance characteristics of the advanced assemblies, nondestructive examinations at poolside were conducted after each cycle of irradiation. This report contains the data collected during the poolside examination of the gadolinia lead test assemblies after their second cycle of irradiation and compares those data with the data from the pre-irradiation characterization, the first-cycle poolside examination, and the data base for the standard Mark B fuel assemblies. 28 refs., 27 figs., 15 tabs.

• Research Organization: Babcock and Wilcox Co., Lynchburg, VA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-78ET34212
• OSTI ID: 5626941
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/34212-54; BAW-1998; ON: DE88003033
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210200* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
BURNUP
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA ACQUISITION
DESIGN
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
GADOLINIUM COMPOUNDS
GADOLINIUM OXIDES
IN-SERVICE INSPECTION
INSPECTION
IRRADIATION
OCONEE-1 REACTOR
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RARE EARTH COMPOUNDS
REACTORS
TESTING
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
URANIUM DIOXIDE
URANIUM OXIDES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS