Modelling CANDU fuel element and bundle behaviour for in- and out-reactor performance of intact and defective fuel

A proposed platform-based fuel performance code integrates treatments for intact fuel performance and defective fuel oxidation. The intact fuel performance code is verified against the ELESTRES and ELESIM industry-standard toolset for heat transport, fission gas diffusion, and deformation and interaction of the pellet and sheath. The oxidation model integrates equilibrium thermodynamics into oxygen transport equations and is validated against coulometric titration data from Chalk River Laboratories. Ongoing work aims to incorporate the intact fuel performance model into a bundle heat transport and deformation model, and to apply the oxidation to the design and analysis of an out-reactor instrumented fuel oxidation experiment. (author)