Current Capabilities of the Fuel Performance Modeling Code PARFUME

The success of gas reactors depends upon the safety and quality of the coated particle fuel. A fuel performance modeling code (called PARFUME), which simulates the mechanical and physico-chemical behavior of fuel particles during irradiation, is under development at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Among current capabilities in the code are:(1) various options for calculating CO production and fission product gas release,(2) a thermal model that calculates a time-dependent temperature profile through a pebble bed sphere or a prismatic block core, as well as through the layers of each analyzed particle,(3) simulation of multi-dimensional particle behavior associated with cracking in the IPyC layer, partial debonding of the IPyC from the SiC, particle asphericity, kernel migration, and thinning of the SiC caused by interaction of fission products with the SiC,(4)(4) two independent methods for determining particle failure probabilities,(5) a model for calculating release-to-birth (R/B) ratios of gaseous fission products, that accounts for particle failures and uranium contamination in the fuel matrix, and(6) the evaluation of an accident condition, where a particle experiences a sudden change in temperature following a period of normal irradiation. This paper presents an overview of the code.