Investigation of fuel rod behaviour under extended 1 burnup conditions with ROFEM fuel performance code

Extending burnup is a practical way to improve the economics of water-reactor operation, via enhanced fuel utilisation and reduced spent fuel volume. A dedicated fuel behaviour modeling computer code (entitled ROFEM-1B) has been developed in order to analyse high burnup fuel performance. The code was benchmarked on an experimental data base which include a significant number of irradiation experiments performed in TRIGA-INR Pitesti research reactor. Five fuel rod behaviour during irradiation up to 50 MWd kg-1UO2-1 burnup have been analysed by the code in the framework of the first phase of the international FUMEX code exercise co-ordinated by IAEA Vienna. The input experimental data package has been prepared by IFE-OECD Halden, Norway laboratory. In the second phase of the FUMEX exercise the participants have analysed eight simplified theoretical cases. The paper presents and discuss the results obtained with ROFEM-1B in this exercise and the comparison between code predictions and experimental data