Crud deposition modeling on BWR fuel rods

Deposition of boiling water reactor (BWR) system corrosion products (crud) on operating fuel rods has resulted in performance-limiting conditions in a number of plants. The operational impact of performance-limiting conditions involving crud deposition can be detrimental to a BWR operator, resulting in unplanned or increased frequency of fuel inspections, fuel failure and associated radiological consequences, operational restrictions including core power derate and/or forced shutdowns to remove failed fuel, premature discharge of individual bundles or entire reloads, and/or undesirable core design restrictions. To facilitate improved management of crud-related fuel performance risks, EPRI has developed the CORAL (Crud DepOsition Risk Assessment ModeL) tool. This paper presents a summary of the CORAL elements and benchmarking results. Applications of CORAL as a tool for fuel performance risk assessment are also discussed. (author)