Power Burst Facility

Experimental programs for the PBF have focused on light water reactor safety research for typical power reactor fuel rods under normal, off-normal, and accident conditions. The PBF reactor and test loop provide the capability to conduct experiments to simulate reactivity initiated accidents, power-cooling-mismatch accidents, anticipated transients with and without scram, loss-of-coolant accidents, and severe fuel damage accidents using clusters of up to 32 test fuel rods. Measurements of test rod coolant conditions, cladding and fuel temperatures, internal rod pressure, rod elongation, and other data are recorded on magnetic tape during the PBF experiments. A sophisticated sampling and monitoring system makes it possible to determine the time-dependent release of fission products. A test train assembly facility provides capabilities to fabricate, instrument, and assemble irradiated and unirradiated test assemblies