Used Fuel Disposition Campaign - Baseline Studies for Ring Compression Testing of High-Burnup Fuel Cladding

Abstract

Structural analyses of high-burnup fuel require cladding mechanical properties and failure limits to assess fuel behavior during long-term dry cask storage and transportation. Pre-storage drying-transfer operations and early stage storage subject cladding to higher temperatures and much higher pressure-induced tensile hoop stresses relative to in-reactor operation and pool storage. Under these conditions, radial hydrides may precipitate during slow cooling and provide an additional embrittlement mechanism as the cladding temperature decreases below the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT). On the basis of previous test results, susceptibility to radial-hydride precipitation depends on cladding material, microstructure, and pre-drying distribution of hydrides across the cladding wall, as well as peak hoop stresses and temperatures during drying operations and storage. Susceptibility to embrittlement depends on the extent of radial-hydride precipitation and the thickness of the outer-surface hydride rim. These results highlight the importance of determining the DBTT for high-burnup cladding as a function of peak drying-storage temperatures and stresses and including the relevant mechanical properties in cask structural analyses. Additional testing is needed at lower (and perhaps more realistic) peak drying-storage temperatures and stresses, for which the DBTT is expected to decrease.