Oxide Growth Predictions During an Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) Powered Axial Locator Mechanism (PALM) Cycle

Abstract

Abstract The Mini-Plate for Advanced Test Reactor (MP-ATR) experiment, designed for testing plate-type fuel, will be irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory. This paper discusses the thermal analysis that was performed on the MP-ATR experiment, with the Pawel oxide growth correlation being applied to accurately predict oxide growth under powered axial locator mechanism (PALM) cycle conditions. These oxide growth predictions were attained through a slow-growth transient analysis with 24-hour time steps. The MP-ATR experiment will be irradiated for a total of 10 days during a high-power PALM cycle. To date, oxide growth predictions for ATR drop-in experiments have mainly focused on normal ATR power cycles. Oxide growth predictions can carry a high level of uncertainty when high heat flux and surface temperatures with some correlations are involved. This study takes a quantitative approach to verifying and validating the existing correlations, identifying gaps, and providing recommendations to improve the correlations so as to enable better oxide growth predictions under ATR PALM cycle conditions.