Post irradiation analysis and performance modeling of dispersion and monolithic U-Mo fuels

We analyzed fission product swelling of post-irradiation U-Mo fuels from the early RERTR tests to the recent RERTR-8 test. We found that the gas bubble swelling of the fuel-swelling model was overestimated. From the recent tests, RERTR-7A and 8, we could also collect a considerable amount of fuel swelling data from monolithic U-Mo fuel plates. The fuel swelling data from the monolithic fuel plates are considered more reliable because the interaction layer growth between the fuel and matrix in dispersion fuel, which obscures fuel swelling, does not exist. The swelling correlation comparison to the Si-added dispersion fuel data and monolithic fuel data suggested that a modification of the existing model was necessary. We also developed an interaction layer growth model for U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel plates with a Si-added matrix. PLATE code calculations with the new PIE data analysis results were performed. The updated versions predict with better accuracies for both monolithic fuel plates and dispersion fuel plates. In this paper, we present the results of fission product swelling characterization. In addition, the interaction layer growth model for U-Mo/Al with a Si-added matrix is presented. (author)