Analysis of the Range of Applicability of Thermodynamic Calculations in the Engineering of Nitride Fuel Elements

The domains of applicability of thermodynamic calculations in the engineering of nitride fuel are analyzed. Characteristic values of the following parameters, which affect directly the concentration equilibration time, are estimated: nuclide production rate; characteristic times to local equilibrium in the considered temperature range; characteristic time needed for a stationary temperature profile to be established; characteristic time needed for a quasi-stationary concentration field to be established on a scale comparable to the size of a fuel pellet. It is demonstrated that equilibrium thermodynamic calculations are suitable for estimating the chemical and phase composition of fuel. However, a two-layer kinetic model should be developed in order to characterize the transport processes in condensed and gaseous phases. The process of diffusive transport needs to be taken into account in order to determine the composition in the hot region at the center of a fuel element.