Experimental determination of the local temperature distribution in the cladding tubes of a sodium-cooled pin bundle caused by grid spacers

The cladding tubes of reactor core elements are highly stressed structural elements. Their careful design includes the following: (a) the mathematical determination of the maximum cladding tube temperatures; (b) the determination of the maximum permissible fatigue strengths and creep strains of the materials; and (c) the safety distance between the nominal cladding tube hot spots and the permissible extreme cladding tube temperature. The maximum cladding tube temperatures occur on the top edge of the core and, due to radial power gradients, in the wrapper-wall region of a pin bundle. If grid spacers are now used for fixing the pins as in the SNR fuel elements, a careful check must be made of whether and to what degree temperature peaks in the region of the supports have an influence on the cladding tube design. Initial experimental investigations on a sodium-cooled pin bundle model of the SNR-300 fuel element were carried out to throw light on these special problems. This is reported in the following together with the results so far obtained. (U.K.)