In-Reactor Densification of Dual Cooled Annular Fuel Pellet during Irradiation Test at HANARO

These advantages result in a considerably low pellet centerline temperature. Because of this considerably low pellet temperature, in-reactor behavior of an annular pellet, such as densification and swelling may be significantly different from that of the conventional PWR solid pellet. Since the pellet temperature of an annular fuel rod is lower than that of a PWR solid fuel rod by several hundred degrees, the in-reactor densification and swelling of a dual cooled annular fuel pellet might be considered as athermal phenomena due to a low pellet temperature. In order to investigate the in-reactor behavior of the annular UO2 pellet, HANARO irradiation test was planned and conducted for annular pellets with 5 different types. Post irradiation test is being carried out in the KAERI's PIE facility. In this study, we are going to report the preliminary results of PIE test on the inreactor densification behavior of a dual cooled annular fuel pellet. Irradiation test of dual cooled annular UO2 pellet was conducted at the OR-4 hole in HANARO by using a non-instrumented test rig. The preliminary results of PIE test on the in-reactor densification behavior showed that the irradiated pellets densified much more than expected values based on MATPRO relations of inreactor densification at low temperature in the annular pellet with low initial sintered density. It might be attributed to the higher fission rate during HANARO irradiation