Fuel failure and fission gas release in high burnup PWR fuels under RIA conditions

Abstract

To study the fuel behavior and to evaluate the fuel enthalpy threshold of fuel rod failure under reactivity initiated accident (RIA) conditions, a series of experiments using pulse irradiation capability of the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) has been performed. During the experiments with 50 MWd/kg U PWR fuel rods (HBO test series; an acronym for high burnup fuels irradiated in Ohi unit 1 reactor), significant cladding failure occurred. The energy deposition level at the instant of the fuel failure in the test is 60 cal/g fuel, and is considerably lower than those expected and pre-evaluated. The result suggests that mechanical interaction between the fuel pellets and the cladding tube with decreased integrity due to hydrogen embrittlement causes fuel failure at the low energy deposition level. After the pulse irradiation, the fuel pellets were found as fragmented debris in the coolant water, and most of these were finely fragmented. This paper describes several key observations in the NSRR experiments, which include cladding failure at the lower enthalpy level, possible post-failure events and large fission gas release.