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At least 253 records · Page 14

Challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures to mitigate high uranium density fuel oxidation: uranium silicide

We report the challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures designed and intended to mitigate oxidation of the fuel during a cladding breech of a water-cooled reactor are discussed in three review manuscripts developed in parallel, with the presented article focused on the oxidation performance of uranium silicide. Several high uranium density fuels are under consideration for deployment as accident tolerant and/or advanced technology nuclear reactor fuels, including UN, U 3 Si 2 , UC and UB 2 . Presented here are the literature for the U3Si2 degradation modes, thermodynamics, and oxidation performance of the pure compound and its reported alloyed and composite architectures. Furthermore, this review covers the materials and techniques for the incorporation of additives, dopants, or composite fuel architectures to improve the oxidation/corrosion behavior for high uranium density fuels for use in LWRs.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures to mitigate high uranium density fuel oxidation: Uranium mononitride

We see the challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures designed and intended to mitigate oxidation of the fuel during a cladding breech of a water-cooled reactor are discussed in three review manuscripts developed in parallel, with the presented article focused on the oxidation performance of uranium mononitride. Several high uranium density fuels are under consideration for deployment as accident tolerant and/or advanced technology nuclear reactor fuels, including one on each: UN, U 3 Si 2 , UC and UB 2 . Presented here is the research motivation for the incorporation of additives, dopants, or composite fuel architectures to improve the oxidation/corrosion behavior of high uranium density nuclear fuels for use in LWRs. Furthermore, this review covers the literature on the degradation modes, thermodynamics, and oxidation performance of pure UN and UN-compounds as well as reported alloyed and composite architectures.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures to mitigate high uranium density fuel oxidation: Uranium diboride and uranium carbide

Here, the challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite fuel architectures designed and intended to mitigate oxidation of the fuel during a cladding breach of a water-cooled reactor are discussed in three review manuscripts developed in parallel, with the presented article focused on the oxidation performance of uranium diboride and uranium monocarbide. Several high uranium density fuels are under consideration for deployment as accident tolerant and/or advanced technology nuclear reactor fuels, including UN, U 3 Si 2 , UB 2 , and UC. Presented here is the literature for UB 2 and UC degradation modes, thermodynamics, and oxidation performance of the pure compounds and reported alloyed and composite architectures. Furthermore, this review covers the materials and techniques for the incorporation of additives, dopants, or composite fuel architectures to improve the oxidation behavior for high uranium density fuels for use in LWRs.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

International fuel performance study of fresh fuel experiments for PCMI effects during RIA experiments

This paper presents the results of High-burnup Experiments for Reactivity-initiated Accident (HERA) Modeling & Simulation (M&S) exercise. The HERA project under the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Second Framework for Irradiation Experiments (FIDES-II) program is focused on studying Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel behavior during Reactivity-Initiated Accident (RIA) conditions. The Part I M&S cases are based on a series of tests in the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility in the United States and the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) in Japan. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the test design to accomplish its goals in establishing clearer understanding of the effects of power pulse width during RIA conditions. Further, the blind predictions using various computational tools have been performed and compared amongst to interpret the behaviors of high burnup fuels during RIA. While many international participants evaluate the thermal–mechanical behavior of fuel rod under different conditions, a considerable scatter of outputs comes out for the cases due to the disparity between codes in predicting mechanical behaviors. In general, however, the results of thermal–mechanical analysis elaborate that nominal design conditions the shorter pulse width tests in NSRR should cause cladding failures while the TREAT tests appear to have more split prediction of failure or not. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis varying key testing parameters reveals the considerable effect of power pulse width and total energy deposition on prediction of fuel rod failure.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Magnesium Diboride Current Leads

A recently discovered superconductor, magnesium diboride (MgB2), can be used to fabricate conducting leads used in cryogenic applications. Dis covered to be superconducting in 2001, MgB2 has the advantage of remaining superconducting at higher temperatures than the previously used material, NbTi. The purpose of these leads is to provide 2 A of electricity to motors located in a 1.3 K environment. The providing environment is a relatively warm 17 K. Requirements for these leads are to survive temperature fluctuations in the 5 K and 11 K heat sinks, and not conduct excessive heat into the 1.3 K environment. Test data showed that each lead in the assembly could conduct 5 A at 4 K, which, when scaled to 17 K, still provided more than the required 2 A. The lead assembly consists of 12 steelclad MgB2 wires, a tensioned Kevlar support, a thermal heat sink interface at 4 K, and base plates. The wires are soldered to heavy copper leads at the 17 K end, and to thin copper-clad NbTi leads at the 1.3 K end. The leads were designed, fabricated, and tested at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe - Institut foer Technische Physik before inclusion in Goddard's XRS (X-Ray Spectrometer) instrument onboard the Astro-E2 spacecraft. A key factor is that MgB2 remains superconducting up to 30 K, which means that it does not introduce joule heating as a resistive wire would. Because the required temperature ranges are 1.3-17 K, this provides a large margin of safety. Previous designs lost superconductivity at around 8 K. The disadvantage to MgB2 is that it is a brittle ceramic, and making thin wires from it is challenging. The solution was to encase the leads in thin steel tubes for strength. Previous designs were so brittle as to risk instrument survival. MgB2 leads can be used in any cryogenic application where small currents need to be conducted at below 30 K. Because previous designs would superconduct only at up to 8 K, this new design would be ideal for the 8-30 K range.

Panek, John↗

Comparisons of Wilks’ and Monte Carlo Methods in Response to the 10CFR50.46(c) Proposed Rulemaking

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing a new rulemaking on emergency core system/loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) performance analysis. In the proposed rulemaking, designated as 10CFR50.46(c), the US NRC put forward an equivalent cladding oxidation criterion as a function of cladding pre-transient hydrogen content. The proposed rulemaking imposes more restrictive and burnup-dependent cladding embrittlement criteria; consequently nearly all the fuel rods in a reactor core need to be analyzed under LOCA conditions to demonstrate compliance to the safety limits. New analysis methods are required to provide a thorough characterization of the reactor core in order to identify the locations of the limiting rods as well as to quantify the safety margins under LOCA conditions. With the new analysis method presented in this work, the limiting transient case and the limiting rods can be easily identified to quantify the safety margins in response to the proposed new rulemaking. In this work, the best-estimate plus uncertainty (BEPU) analysis capability for large break LOCA with the new cladding embrittlement criteria using the RELAP5-3D code is established and demonstrated with a reduced set of uncertainty parameters. Both the direct Monte Carlo method and the Wilks’ nonparametric statistical method can be used to perform uncertainty quantification. Wilks’ method has become the de-facto industry standard to perform uncertainty quantification in BEPU LOCA analyses. Despite its widespread adoption by the industry, the use of small sample sizes to infer statement of compliance to the existing 10CFR50.46 rule, has been a major cause of unrealized operational margin in today’s BEPU methods. Moreover the debate on the proper interpretation of the Wilks’ theorem in the context of safety analyses is not fully resolved yet, even more than two decades after its introduction in the frame of safety analyses in the nuclear industry. This represents both a regulatory and application risk in rolling out new methods. With the 10CFR50.46(c) proposed rulemaking, the deficiencies of the Wilks’ approach are further exacerbated. The direct Monte Carlo approach offers a robust alternative to perform uncertainty quantification within the context of BEPU analyses. In this work, the Monte Carlo method is compared with the Wilks’ method in response to the NRC 10CFR50.46(c) proposed rulemaking.

10CFR50.46(c)↗

Preliminary Evaluation of Fuel Management Strategies for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR)

Different fuel management approaches have been investigated for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR). The main design variables were the number of batches, the number of (orifice) zones, and the loading pattern within the core. The optimization criteria are maximizing the fast flux at the centermost position, minimizing the peak assembly power, and reducing fuel consumption. Design constraints were mainly driven by material limits such as peak clad temperature, and maximum fuel burnup. The exploratory study determined that active fuel shuffling only brought very limited benefits. A three-orifice region was found to provide enough flexibility to ensure thermal criteria were met. Lastly, a flexible batch loading termed ‘5-6-8’ was identified as a promising management strategy from a resource utilization standpoint.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Overview of Base Model in Parametric Studies Specific to Performance of U-Mo Plates

This paper provides an overview of the base model specifically developed to perform parametric sensitivity studies on the U-10Mo monolithic fuel system. U-Mo monolithic fuels are being considered for the conversion of test reactors into high-performance research reactors that operate using proliferation-resistant, low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels. These plate-type fuels contain a high-density, low-enrichment fuel sandwiched between zirconium diffusion barriers and encapsulated in aluminum claddings. All U.S. high-performance research reactors have released the designs of their LEU monolithic fuel reactor cores. These designs include nearly 50 distinct fuel plate geometries with different operational parameters. Consequently, a single generic plate geometry representing all the extreme points in this design matrix is unrealistic. To evaluate the performance for various parameters, a set of sensitivity studies was performed. These studies considered various input parameters (i.e., geometric, operational, and material property-related). The results revealed valuable information about plate performance and the sensitivity of this performance to various modeling inputs. To establish a reference state for comparing these result, base model featuring representative irradiation conditions was developed. To capture in-reactor behavior accurately, incorporation of representative constitutive models capable of evolving properties with respect to temperature, irradiation time, and burnup was needed. The behavioral models considered burnup-dependent properties, swelling, creep, and degradation. This paper introduces the base model created for the parametric sensitivity studies. The detailed description of the procedure includes the model geometry, model discretization, thermo-mechanical coupling, material properties and behavioral models. This paper also provides selected results and assesses the performance of the base model.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Full-core analysis for FeCrAl enhanced accident tolerant fuel in boiling water reactors

The impact of replacing Zircaloy with FeCrAl, a candidate enhanced accident-tolerant fuel cladding material, was evaluated for 10 × 10 boiling water reactor fuel bundles. Results from a series of full-core parametric studies estimated that replacing UO 2 /Zircaloy with UO 2 /FeCrAl would require an average enrichment increase of 0.6% 235 U throughout the fuel lattice with the cladding and channel box thicknesses halved and fuel pellet diameter increased. Full-core results indicated that UO 2 /FeCrAl models with these geometric/enrichment specifications matched the base UO 2 /Zircaloy cycle length of 527 effective full power days. Optimization studies of the full-core design established loading and control blade patterns for both Zircaloy and FeCrAl models. A side study was conducted modeling a hybrid fuel bundle consisting of FeCrAl cladding and a SiC/Ni/Cr channel box. By halving the cladding thickness, the enrichment level required was less than that of the Zircaloy base case design after performing loading pattern optimization of the hybrid bundle core. Lastly, the thermomechanical performance of a Zircaloy-cladded fuel rod was compared to that of a FeCrAl system. Results from this analysis show that, if starting from the same fuel-cladding gap thickness, a FeCrAl-clad fuel rod operates with a greater average fuel centerline temperature, comparable axial elongation and radial displacement, and longer time to gap closure compared to a Zircaloy-clad fuel rod. Furthermore, this fuel performance analysis was primarily based on the commercial Kanthal APMT FeCrAl alloy but also used available data for the C35M FeCrAl alloy developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Development of LWR Fuels with Enhanced Accident Tolerance ATF Feasibility Analysis and Final Technical Report Deliverable for the Westinghouse Accident Tolerant Fuel Program (Rev. 2)

The beyond design basis accident at Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011 and the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 imply that severe nuclear accidents may occur at somewhat higher frequencies than previously predicted, and that the financial liabilities of such accidents can cripple a utility. While current fuel is more than adequate for design basis accidents, the potential for harm from beyond design basis accidents (BDBA) has been a driver for Westinghouse development efforts since 2003. After Fukushima, other fuel vendors also began pursuing new fuel materials that can provide significant increases in the time, enabling reactor operators to respond to unforeseen events before significant releases of fuel materials and fission products occur. In order to be commercially successful, accident tolerant fuel (ATF) products must also provide significant fuel cost savings, operating cost improvements as well as safety improvements. This report documents the engineering, design and testing that occurred from October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2018, by the Westinghouse team. In addition, it includes: 1. The results of modeling and simulation work completed to date that supports technical feasibility of the ATF concept in meeting the goals of the enhanced ATF program including a core level analysis predicting how an existing LWR will perform when loaded with ATF. 2. Regulatory Analysis showing path to LTA/LTR acceptance. 3. Business Analysis showing commercial viability of the ATF concept.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Fuel performance evaluation of two high burnup PWR core designs during normal operation, control rod withdrawal, and control rod ejection scenarios

There is interest among utilities to extend the current, 18-month operating cycle to 24 months. Economically, this extension would require greater than 5 % enrichment and peak rod average discharge burnup levels above 62 GWd/MTU. A notable challenge of increasing enrichment is the resulting additional excess reactivity encountered during the early stages of fuel life. To accommodate, burnable absorbers beyond soluble boron are introduced into the fuel system. In high burnup fuels, the possibilities of cladding lift-off and fuel melting increase due, in part, to increased rod internal pressures and limited fuel thermal conductivity, respectively. This work collaboratively employs PARCS, RELAP5-3D, and BISON to compare the fuel performance of two high burnup fuel candidates with higher than 5 % enrichment. Here, the fuel performance parameters were compared to current NRC guidance. The results demonstrate an annular fuel design with homogenously blended gadolinium as a burnable absorber operates with greater safety margins during normal operation, allowing for additional operational flexibility. During normal operation, the core design utilizing Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber pins contained fuel pins which reached plenum pressures above 15.5 MPa by the end of the first fuel cycle and fuel pins experienced cladding hoop strains above 1 %. In the Gd core design, only two observed pins experienced plenum pressures above 15.5 MPa and no pins exceeded 1 % cladding hoop strain. During the control rod withdrawal scenario, plenum pressures for pins in both designs marginally exceeded system pressure, however neither experienced excessive hoop strain. The Gd core design experienced a maximum fuel temperature of 2418 K, which is significantly higher than the Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber design at 2157 K, but still within regulatory guidance. We predicted that the fuel in both could return to service after the CRW event. We also predicted that cladding would not fail during the Control Rod Ejection in either core design. Generally, the Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber core design performed with greater safety margin with regards to temperature during normal operation and the transient events. However, the Gd core design performed with greater safety margin regarding plenum pressure and hoop strain limits during normal operation and both transient events.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Development and formulation of physics based metallic fuel models and comparison to integral irradiation data

Metallic fuel has an important historical significance in the development of nuclear reactors and continues to be relevant to the progression of advanced test and power reactors. A number of models, ranging from empirical to mechanistic, have been developed and implemented in various fuel performance codes to describe U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr fuel and typical fast reactor cladding materials. One challenge of using these models to simulate fuel performance is the inevitable tangling of coupled phenomena that can cloud proper implementation, calibration, and eventual utilization of new models. Here in an effort to provide a baseline capability that will facilitate the use of advanced models, new capabilities have been implemented into the fuel performance code BISON specific to metallic fuel simulations, ranging from materials properties, fission gas release and swelling calculations, coolant channel models, and cladding correlations. These models have been applied to the X441/X441A EBR-II experimental assembly data, a set of irradiated metallic UPuZr fuel rods of varying pin designs. The models implemented in BISON are able to capture the general trend of the expected response of the fuel and cladding to irradiation in EBR-II, especially when considering the spread in experimental measurements and the uncertainties inherited from the historical material models. Ultimately, the models outlined here provide the baseline capabilities on which new models can build upon in order to improve the prediction of metallic fuel performance simulations in off-normal designs or operations.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Fabrication of (U, Zr) C-fueled/tungsten-clad specimens for irradiation in the Plum Brook Reactor Facility

Fuel samples, 90UC - 10 ZrC, and chemically vapor deposited tungsten fuel cups were fabricated for the study of the long term dimensional stability and compatibility of the carbide-tungsten fuel-cladding systems under irradiation. These fuel samples and fuel cups were assembled into the fuel pins of two capsules, designated as V-2E and V-2F, for irradiation in NASA Plum Brook Reactor Facility at a fission power density of 172 watts/c.c. and a miximum cladding temperature of 1823 K. Fabrication methods and characteristics of the fuel samples and fuel cups prepared are described.

Source record↗

Measuring thermal diffusivity and gap conductance in uranium nitride and Zircaloy relevant for microreactor applications

Heat transfer across nuclear fuels and structural interfaces is an important factor for evaluating the performance of nuclear power systems. Specifically, heat generated as nuclear fuel fissions must be transported through the cladding material and through the reactor to reach the steam turbine for power generation. As new microreactor designs emerge, maximizing the efficiency of this heat transfer process becomes crucial to make them commercially viable. This article examines thermal diffusivity and gap conductance in uranium nitride (UN) fuel and Zircaloy-4 (Zry4) cladding using light flash analysis (LFA). Thermal diffusivity measurements were made on monolithic UN pellets and Zry4 exposed to carbon at peak operating temperatures of microreactors and show that carbon ingress has a minimal effect on thermal diffusivity when compared with identical materials not exposed to carbon. Evaluation of gap conductance at the UN-Zry4 interface was done using one-dimensional two-layer thermal transport models as a function of applied pressure. Here the results show that increasing pressure on the UN-Zry4 interface leads to gains in gap conductance per unit area in fuel-cladding assemblies at microreactor operating temperatures. While many other variables are expected to influence UN-Zry4 interfacial gap conductance (e.g. contact surface roughness, porosity, localized heating, environmental gas pressure), the work offers a demonstration of using a conventional LFA apparatus to determine this parameter at elevated temperatures.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Stability of zirconium hydride

This reports complete Milestone M2.2.1 Stability of zirconium hydride: Experimental investigation of the hydrogen concentration of encapsulated zirconium hydride before and after joining. In this milestone, we first report the successful fabrication of crack-free bulk zirconium hydride by using the ORNL static hydriding system. The fabricated hydride was characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT). XRD results showed that the δ-phase zirconium hydride, α-zirconium, and ε-phase hydride were present. XCT confirmed the absence of the internal cracking. The hydrogen concentration was determined by the weight change before and after hydrogen loading, given the fact that the oxide phase was not found during XRD analysis. Two metallic cladding materials, i.e., molybdenum and FeCrAl, were selected to encapsulate the fabricated zirconium hydride pellets. Demonstration capsules were designed and machined. Mo crucible was successfully sealed by using a combination of electron beam welding and gas tungsten arc welding. Due to the undesired neutronics property of Mo, further investigation of this cladding material was not pursued. Electron beam welding and laser beam welding were employed to seal the FeCrAl capsules. XRD were performed on the zirconium hydride before and after the sealing. The results showed that the welding process has negligible impact on the hydrogen content in the FeCrAl-canned zirconium hydride. The presented work fulfilled the proposed work under this milestone and paves a pathway to fabricate single-phase zirconium hydride and to develop robust cladding materials to can bulk zirconium hydride.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Report on Assessment of Advanced Reactor Fuel Performance

Three activities have been performed in FY 2019 to support the Advanced Fuel Cycle Campaign, which include assessment of annular fuel performance in an ultra-high burnup sodium-cooled reactor (SFR), modeling of annular fuel behavior during a transient scenario, and feasibility of a sustainable closed fuel cycle utilizing melt-refining process. Annular fuel performance parameters, including temperature profile, swelling strain, and cumulative damage fraction (CDF), in a 3000 MWt Sustainable Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SSFR) were assessed using the BISON fuel performance code. The SSFR is once-through ultra-long-life core based on a 34-batch fuel management scheme with 1.5-year cycle length. The fuel residence time in the SSFR is 51 years and the average discharged burnup is about 30%. Annular fuel has potential to irradiate for ultra-high burnup without major fuel-cladding mechanical interaction. This feature is achieved by using a low smeared density (~55%). In the SSFR design, however, 75% smeared density and a thick fuel pin were preferred to maintain criticality for 51 years. Due to the high smeared density and thick fuel pin configuration, the annular fuel was predicted to suffer premature cladding failure before reaching the discharge burnup of the SSFR. The current fuel creep model predicts a prominent creep strain due to gravity over the half-century irradiation, which may significantly affect the evolution of CDF. Thus, in order to use the annular fuel in an ultra-high burnup core such as the SSFR, a low smeared density and thin annular fuel is strongly recommended.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Baseline Hypothetical Facility for the Production of 131 I, 99 Mo, and 133 Xe from HALEU Fission Targets

The report describes the development of a hypothetical facility to produce the pharmaceutical radioisotope 131 I at an amount of 60 curies per week via the fission of a High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) target, along with the chemical and physical processes and equipment needed to separate the 131 I and co-produced 99 Mo and 133 Xe. The hypothetical design was carried out using a 10 MWt research reactor. The irradiation calculation determined that three HALEU targets with aluminum cladding can be used to produce 60 Ci/week of 131 I, 750 Ci/week of 99 Mo and 560 Ci/week of 133 Xe. The process selected for the baseline design uses caustic dissolution of the target material with ion exchange processes to separate and purify the iodine and molybdenum. The xenon is processed using a cryogenic carbon bed separation process. Target processing occurs in seven shielded hot cells with a total footprint of 16m 2 and waste management occurs in an eight hot cell with a 2.5 m 2 footprint. Waste generated from the processing of the three targets per week would generate less than 4 shielded drums of waste annually. These hot cells would need varying levels of shielding due to the amount of fission products being handled in the unit. Hot cell facilities also require support services including QA/QC, health physics, administrative staff, operator changing room, radiological buffer areas, and waste storage. The overall facility would require a footprint of 1050 m 2 with 20.25 m 2 of shielded hot cells.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Development of Space Station strut design

Candidate Space Station struts exhibiting high stiffness (38-40 msi modulus of elasticity) were manufactured and experimentally evaluated. One and two inch diameter aluminum-clad evaluation specimens were manufactured using a unique dry fiber resin injection process. Preliminary tests were performed on strut elements having 80 percent high-modulus graphite epoxy and 20 percent aluminum. Performed tests included modulus of elasticity, thermal cycling, and coefficient of thermal expansion. The paper describes the design approach, including an analytical assessment of strut thermal deformation behavior. The major thrust of this paper is the manufacturing process which produces aluminum-clad struts with precisely controlled properties which can be fine-tuned after fabrication. An impact test and evaluation procedure for evaluating toughness is described.

Johnson, R. R.↗