Current Status of the LIFE Fast Reactors Fuel Performance Codes

The LIFE series of fuel performance codes have been developed in the US to evaluate the thermo-mechanical behavior of fuel elements in a fast-reactor environment. The oxide version of the code (LIFE-4) remains to be the national reference for modeling the thermal, mechanical, and materials performance of fast-reactor oxide fuel and blanket pins during both normal and transient operations. The metallic fuel version of the code (LIFE-METAL) was under development up to the termination of the US Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) program in the early 1990's, where it was calibrated and validated using large database from metallic fuel irradiated at both EBR-II and FFTF. Recent institutional and industry interest in the development of advanced sodium cooled fast reactors renewed interest in those fuel performance codes, for design and licensing activities as well as its use for verification and validation of other newly developed fuel performance codes. This paper presents the current status of both oxide and metallic versions of the LIFE code, recent applications, and ranges for its calibration and validation databases as well as current and future activities developments. (author)