Information on the evolution of severe LWR fuel element damage obtained in the CORA program

Abstract

In the CORA program a series of out-of-pile experiments on LWR severe accidental situations is being performed, in which test bundles of LWR typical components and arrangements (PWR, BWR) are exposed to temperature transients up to about 2400°C under flowing steam. The individual features of the facility, the test conduct, and the evaluation will be presented. In the frame of the international cooperation in severe fuel damage (SFD) programs the CORA tests are contributing confirmatory and complementary informations to the results from the limited number of in-pile tests. The identification of basic phenomena of the fuel element destruction, observed as a function of temperature, is supported by separate-effects test results. Most important mechanisms are the steam oxidation of the Zircaloy cladding, which determines the temperature escalation, the chemical interaction between UO 2 fuel and cladding, which dominates fuel liquefaction, relocation and resulting blockage formation, as well as chemical interactions with Inconel spacer grids and absorber units ((Ag, In, Cd) alloy or B 4C), which are leading to extensive low-temperature melt formation around 1200°C. Interrelations between those basic phenomena, resulting for example in cladding deformation (“flowering”) and the dramatic hydrogen formation in response to the fast cooling of a hot bundle by cold water (“quenching”) are determining the evolution paths of fuel element destruction, which are to be identified. A further important task is the abstraction from mechanistic and microstructural details in order to get a rough classification of damage regimes (temperature and extent), a practicable analytical treatment of the materials behaviour, and a basis for decisions in accident mitigation and management procedures.