COSMOS: a computer code for the analysis of LWR UO2 and MOX fuel Rod

A computer code COSMOS has been developed based on the CARO-D5 for the thermal analysis of LWR UO2 and MOX fuel rod under steady-state and transient operating conditions. The main purpose of the COSMOS, which considers high burnup characteristics such as thermal conductivity degradation with burnup and rim formation at the outer part of fuel pellet, is to calculate temperature profile across fuel pellet and fission gas release up to high burnup. A new mechanistic fission gas release model developed based on physical processes has been incorporated into the code. In addition, the features of MOX fuel such as change in thermo-mechanical properties and the effect of microscopic heterogeneity on fission gas release have been also taken into account so that it can be applied to MOX fuel. Another important feature of the COSMOS is that it can analyze fuel segment refabricated from base irradiated fuel rods in commercial reactors. This feature makes it possible to analyze database obtained from international projects such as the HALDEN an RISO, many of which were collected from refabricated fuel segments. The capacity of the COSMOS has been tested with some number of experimental results obtained from the HALDEN, RISO and FIGARO programs. Comparison with the measured data indicates that, although the COSMOS gives reasonable agreement, the current models need to be improved. This work is being performed using database available from the OECD/NEA. (author)