Sensitivity Studies on UNF Cladding Structural Integrity under NCT Loading

Abstract

This work describes the sensitivity analyses performed on the transportation package used in the NCT initial modeling and simulation demonstration [1]. The initial demonstration predicted the structural integrity of the fuel cladding by integrating models from the fuel rod/grid slot level, the single assembly-level, and the full cask-level. A number of sensitivity analyses were performed on the models at the different levels to determine how sensitive the results were to the parameters that were varied. The results are used to coarsely group the parameters investigated into four categories of sensitivity: No Sensitivity, Low Sensitivity; Moderate Sensitivity, and High Sensitivity. The High Sensitivity analyses are described in detail below. The Moderate, Low and No Sensitivity results are briefly described.