Irradiation testing in the development of fuel elements for the gas-cooled fast breeder reactor
Year: 1973
Type: article
Abstract: From symposium on fuel and elements for fast reactors; Brussels, Belgium (2 Jul 1973). Results of irradiation testing of fuel rods for the Gas-cooled Fast Breeder Reactor (GC FR) are presented. It was found that under GCFR conditions volatile fission products were not observed beyond the fuel end of the blanket region in the GB-9 rod, which operated with no simulation of a cladding leak. This means that for normal operation up to the maximum burnup maintained in the GB-9 rod, i.e., 54,000 MWd/t, the charcoal trap was not required to limit transport of volatile fission products out of the fuel rod. No significant dimensional change was observed for the fuel rod irradiated to a burnup of 54,000 MWd/t. Attack of the cladding by fuel or fission products is in agreement with that observed in sealed rods tested under the LMFBR program. The observed gaseous fission-product releases and transport rates under steady-state conditions have verified the models being employed for systems analysis. The behavior of the gaseous fission products during transients of temperature, power, and pressure was in agreement with analytical predictions. Solidstate migration and gas-phase interdiffusion limit the rate of the release of gaseous fission products during normal operation. However, when a simulated leak is introduced, convective transport becomes dominant. The delay of gaseous fission products by the rod charcoal traps was as predicted over a temperature range simulatlng both normal and off-desfgn GC FR operation. (JRD)
Authors: J.R. Lindgren, R.J. Campana, S. Langer, A.F. Weinberg, Richard H. Simon, A.W. Longest, Robert M. Strain
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W130934567