In-pile intragranular densification of oxide fuels (AWBA Development Program)

This report proposes a model to describe in-pile densification of oxide fuels, by both vacancy boil-off due to thermal excitation and vacancy knockout by the passage of fission fragments through the pores. The model includes the migration rates of both vacancies and interstitials to pores and the production of vacancy-rich damage cascades by fission fragments. It has been coupled with a previously reported swelling and gas release model so that it can predict the total dimensional changes of the fuel as well as predicting intragranular densification for both ThO2 and UO2 fuels for advanced water breeder reactor applications development effort