Behaviour of fission products under severe PWR accident conditions. The VERCORS experimental programme—Part 3: Release of low-volatile fission products and actinides

Abstract

The VERCORS analytical programme consisted of a series of tests carried out on irradiated PWR fuel samples. The tests – funded jointly by EDF and IRSN – were carried out by the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) at their Grenoble site. They were performed in a hot cell belonging to the Active Materials Analysis Laboratory (LAMA). The general outline of the programme was set out in a first article (of a series of 3), which described the different levels of fission products (FP) volatility and their characteristics. This led to a classification into five main categories of volatility and/or behaviour: (1) Volatile FP including fission gases, iodine, caesium, antimony, tellurium, cadmium, rubidium and silver; (2) Semi-volatile FP, a category made up of molybdenum, rhodium, barium, palladium and technetium; (3) Low-volatile FP comprising ruthenium, cerium, strontium, yttrium, europium, niobium and lanthanum with generally low but significant release; (4) Non-volatile FP including zirconium, neodymium and praseodymium; and lastly (5) Actinides which group together uranium, plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium. The specific behaviour of fission gases and volatile FP is dealt with in the second article, which also includes the specific characteristics of volatile FP regarding transport. The main variables (i.e. temperature, which is the main variable at least until loss of sample geometry, oxidising–reducing conditions, burn-up, interactions with the cladding and/or the structural components, the nature of the fuel, and finally the state of the fuel) affecting the kinetics and/or the released fraction of these same FP could also be identified. This final article represents the Third Part of the series. It concerns the release of actinides and less volatile FP, in keeping with the classification by categories previously identified, which are as follows: (1) semi-volatile FP, comprising of Mo, Ba, Rh, Pd, Tc, (2) low-volatile FP, comprising of Sr, Y, Nb, Ru, La, Ce, Eu, (3) non-volatile FP, comprising of Zr, Nd and Pr and lastly (4) actinides. The main parameters favouring their release are also highlighted.