The Behavior of Breached Boiling Water Reactor Fuel Rods on Long-Term Exposure to Air and Argon at 598 K

1985 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kohli ◽  
D. Stahl ◽  
V. Pasupathi ◽  
A. B. Johnson ◽  
E. R. Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Reactor Fuel ◽  
Boiling Water ◽  
Boiling Water Reactor ◽  
Fuel Rods ◽  
Water Reactor

scholarly journals Measurement station for interim inspections of Lightbridge metallic fuel rods at the Halden Boiling Water Reactor

2018 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 04011 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Hartmann ◽  
A. Totemeier ◽  
S. Holcombe ◽  
J. Liverud ◽  
M. Limi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Eddy Current ◽  
Boiling Water ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Boiling Water Reactor ◽  
Bonding Layer ◽  
Metallic Fuel ◽  
Fuel Rods ◽  
Water Reactor ◽  
Probe Geometry

Lightbridge Corporation has developed a new Uranium-Zirconium based metallic fuel. The fuel rods aremanufactured via a co-extrusion process, and are characterized by their multi-lobed (cruciform-shaped) cross section. The fuel rods are also helically-twisted in the axial direction. Two experimental fuel assemblies, each containing four Lightbridge fuel rods, are scheduled to be irradiated in the Halden Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR) starting in 2018. In addition to on-line monitoring of fuel rod elongation and critical assembly conditions (e.g. power, flow rates, coolant temperatures, etc.) during the irradiation, several key parameters of the fuel will be measured out-of-core during interim inspections. An inspection measurement station for use in the irradiated fuel handling compartment at the HBWR has therefore been developed for this purpose. The multi-lobed cladding cross section combined with the spiral shape of the Lightbridge metallic fuel rods requires a high-precision guiding system to ensure good position repeatability combined with low-friction guiding. The measurement station is equipped with a combination of instruments and equipment supplied from third-party vendors and instruments and equipment developed at Institute for Energy Technology (IFE). Two sets of floating linear voltage differential transformer (LVDT) pairs are used to measure swelling and diameter changes between the lobes and the valleys over the length of the fuel rods. Eddy current probes are used to measure the thickness of oxide layers in the valleys and on the lobe tips and also to detect possible surface cracks/pores. The measurement station also accommodates gamma scans. Additionally, an eddy-current probe has been developed at IFE specifically to detect potential gaps or discontinuities in the bonding layer between the metallic fuel and the Zirconium alloy cladding. Potential gaps in the bonding layer will be hidden behind a 0.5-1.0 mm thick cladding wall. It has therefore been necessary to perform a careful design study of the probe geometry. For this, finite element analysis (FEA) has been performed in combination with practical validation tests on representative fuel dummies with machined flaws to find the probe geometry that best detects a hidden flaw. Tests performed thus far show that gaps down to 25 μm thickness can be detected with good repeatability and good discrimination from lift-off signals.

Severe Accident Context Quantification for Long-Term Station Blackout in Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plants

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gueorgui I. Petkov ◽  
Monica Vela-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Boiling Water ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Boiling Water Reactor ◽  
Water Reactor ◽  
Accident Scenario ◽  
Station Blackout ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi

The realistic study of dynamic accident context is an invaluable tool to address the uncertainties and their impact on safety assessment and management. The capacities of the performance evaluation of teamwork (PET) procedure for dynamic context quantification and determination of alternatives, coordination, and monitoring of human performance and decision-making are discussed in this paper. The procedure is based on a thorough description of symptoms during the accident scenario progressions with the use of thermo-hydraulic (TH) model and severe accident (SA) codes (melcor and maap). The opportunities of PET procedure for context quantification are exemplified for the long-term station blackout (LT SBO) accident scenario at Fukushima Daiichi #1 and a hypothetic unmitigated LT SBO at peach bottom #1 boiling water reactor (BWR) reactor nuclear power plants (NPPs). The context quantification of these LT SBO scenarios is based on the IAEA Fukushima Daiichi accident report, “State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analysis” and TH calculations made by using maap code at the EC Joint Research Centre.

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