Thermal-hydraulic stability tests for newly designed BWR rod bundle (step-III fuel type B)

The Step-III Fuel Type B is a new fuel design for high burn-up operation in BWRs in Japan. The fuel design uses a 9x9 - 9 rod bundle to accommodate the high fuel duty of high burn-up operation and a square water-channel to provide enhanced neutron moderation. The objective of this study is to confirm the thermal-hydraulic stability performance of the new fuel design by tests which simulate the parallel channel configuration of the BWR core. The stability testing was performed at the NFI test loop. The test bundle geometry used for the stability test is a 3x3 heater rod bundle which has about 1/8 of the cross section area of the full size 9x9 - 9 rod bundle. Full size heater rods were used to simulate the fuel rods. For parallel channel simulation, a bypass channel with a 6x6 - 8 heater rod bundle was connected in parallel with the 3x3 rod bundle test channel. The stability test results showed typical flow oscillation features which have been described as density wave oscillations. The stationary limit cycle oscillation extended flow amplitudes to several tens of a percent of the nominal value, during which periodic dry-out and re-wetting were observed. The test results were used for verification of a stability analysis code, which demonstrated that the stability performance of the new fuel design has been conservatively predicted. (author)