Modelling of fuel rod hydriding failures in water reactors

Mechanistic models which were developed to describe primary hydriding phenomena in claddings of initially intact rods with residual moisture are described. The models include the following key processes: fuel rod thermal behavior, UO2 fuel oxidation in steam-hydrogen atmosphere under irradiation, hydrogen diffusion in zirconium and in the hydride, growth of the hydride phase. Fuel rod thermomechanical behavior is calculated by using RTOP integral fuel code. An oxidation model represents the effects of temperature dynamics and temperature profile along fuel axis and radius on fuel oxidation as well as on hydrogen accumulation inside the fuel rod. Along with ordinary thermal dissociation of water molecules, the oxidation model also addresses radiolysis of the steam-hydrogen mixture due to fission fragments. The present radiolysis model takes into account the effects of the gas mixture composition, temperature and pressure. A new model of cladding hydriding is proposed in which calculation of the massive hydride growth is performed in 2-D geometry. Hydrogen transport in zirconium cladding is modeled with account for thermodiffusion. The RTOP code comprising the models developed allows us to calculate different scenarios of hydriding rod failures under given operation conditions. Test calculations were carried out and compared to available data. It is shown that there are threshold values of initial steam content inside the intact fuel rod which lead to the possibility of through-cladding hydride growth and formation of the primary defect. The threshold values depend on the oxidation state of the cladding inner surface, linear power profile in the fuel rod, fuel rod geometry, cladding temperature conditions and hydrogen diffusivities in zirconium and zirconium hydride