Evaluation of a critical fuel rod enthalpy versus burnup under reactivity insertion accident conditions
Description
With the trend to increase the burnup of LWR fuel rods, the actual RIA safety criteria might have to be reformulated due to possible changes in the fuel-cladding properties which seem to lead to a decrease of the critical fuel enthalpy with increasing burnup. Based on the assumption that the critical fuel enthalpy is reached if the fuel temperature is somewhere near the melting point (also off-centre), calculations were carried out using the TRANSURANUS/PSI integral fuel code in order to assess the response of a reference pressurized water reactor MOX fuel rod in terms of critical fuel enthalpy versus burnup. The influences of the presence of a 'rim zone' in the fuel pellet, the width (time at half maximum) and the shape of the power excursion were also investigated. (author) 8 figs., 3 tabs., 14 refs
Additional details
Publishing Information
- Publisher
- Paul Scherrer Institut.
- Imprint Place
- Villigen PSI (Switzerland)
- Imprint Title
- Paul Scherrer Institut annual report 1995. Annex IV: PSI nuclear energy and safety
- Imprint Pagination
- 137 p.
- Journal Page Range
- p. 15-24.
- Report number
- INIS-mf--14815
INIS
- Country of Publication
- Switzerland
- Country of Input or Organization
- Switzerland
- INIS RN
- 27059961
- Subject category
- S21: SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; S21: SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS;
- Resource subtype / Literary indicator
- Numerical Data, Progress Report
- Descriptors DEI
- BURNUP; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; ENTHALPY; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; FUEL-CLADDING INTERACTIONS; NUCLEAR FUELS; PROGRESS REPORT; REACTOR SAFETY; T CODES; THEORETICAL DATA; TRANSIENTS
- Descriptors DEC
- COMPUTER CODES; DATA; DOCUMENT TYPES; ENERGY SOURCES; FUELS; INFORMATION; MATERIALS; NUMERICAL DATA; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; REACTOR MATERIALS; SAFETY; SIMULATION; THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES