Fuel and Fission Gas Behavior during Rise-to-Power Test of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR)

Abstract

The rise-to-power tests of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) have been carried out successfully by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). For the safe operation of HTTR, the continuous and reliable measurement of the coolant activity is required to evaluate the fuel performance during normal operating conditions. In order to measure the primary coolant radioactivity (PCR), the PCR instrumentation of the safety protection system, the fuel failure detection (FFD) system and the primary coolant sampling system have been installed in the primary circuit. The PCR was less than 103 MBq/m3, and measured Kr and Xe isotopes were less than 0.1 MBq/m3 during the rise-to-power tests. The measured fractional releases are constant at 2x10-9 up to 60% of the reactor power, and then increase to 7x10-9 at full power operation. The prediction shows good agreement with the measured value. These results showed that the release mechanism varied from recoil to diffusion of the generated fission gas from the contaminated uranium in the fuel compact matrix.