Multiphysics analysis of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal susceptibility–Part 1: Overview and code coupling strategies

Ian Greenquist; Aaron Wysocki; Jake Hirschhorn; Nathan Capps

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109913

Multiphysics analysis of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal susceptibility–Part 1: Overview and code coupling strategies

Ian Greenquist
, Aaron Wysocki
, Jake Hirschhorn
, Nathan Capps

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

The US nuclear energy industry is investigating strategies to increase the reactor operating cycle to 24 months, resulting in peak rod average burnups exceeding the current limit of 62 GWd/tU. This increase will in turn increase the probability of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD) in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). This effort couples multiple codes to (1) evaluate full-core power histories for high-burnup fuel operated in a Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor, (2) model a postulated large-break LOCA, and (3) calculate the mass of fuel susceptible to FFRD. This paper, the first of three describing the work, focuses on code coupling strategies and FFRD susceptibility calculations. The other two companion papers focus on code-specific designs and analyses. Three codes were used in this work. VERA was used to calculate steady-state power histories, TRACE was used to model the transient thermal hydraulics, and BISON was used to model steady-state and transient fuel performance and cladding failure. Several fuel pulverization models were used to calculate FFRD susceptibility in failed rods. Depending on the cladding failure/fuel pulverization model combination, the core-wide FFRD susceptibility during the postulated LOCA range from 0 to over 5,000 kg.

Original language	English
Article number	109913
Journal	Annals of Nuclear Energy
Volume	191
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109913
State	Published - Oct 2023

Funding

This work was supported by the Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy. This work would not have been possible without the collaboration and contributions of Southern Nuclear Company. The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Program of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy supported the analysis herein. The authors would like to express appreciation to Jacob Gorton, Aaron Graham, Andrew Nelson, and Christian Petrie of ORNL for their reviews and feedback of this paper. Lastly, this research made use of the High-Performance Computing Center at INL, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the US Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517.

Keywords

BISON
Code coupling
FFRD
High burnup
Nuclear fuels
TRACE
VERA

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10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109913

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title = "Multiphysics analysis of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal susceptibility–Part 1: Overview and code coupling strategies",

abstract = "The US nuclear energy industry is investigating strategies to increase the reactor operating cycle to 24 months, resulting in peak rod average burnups exceeding the current limit of 62 GWd/tU. This increase will in turn increase the probability of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD) in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). This effort couples multiple codes to (1) evaluate full-core power histories for high-burnup fuel operated in a Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor, (2) model a postulated large-break LOCA, and (3) calculate the mass of fuel susceptible to FFRD. This paper, the first of three describing the work, focuses on code coupling strategies and FFRD susceptibility calculations. The other two companion papers focus on code-specific designs and analyses. Three codes were used in this work. VERA was used to calculate steady-state power histories, TRACE was used to model the transient thermal hydraulics, and BISON was used to model steady-state and transient fuel performance and cladding failure. Several fuel pulverization models were used to calculate FFRD susceptibility in failed rods. Depending on the cladding failure/fuel pulverization model combination, the core-wide FFRD susceptibility during the postulated LOCA range from 0 to over 5,000 kg.",

keywords = "BISON, Code coupling, FFRD, High burnup, Nuclear fuels, TRACE, VERA",

author = "Ian Greenquist and Aaron Wysocki and Jake Hirschhorn and Nathan Capps",

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N2 - The US nuclear energy industry is investigating strategies to increase the reactor operating cycle to 24 months, resulting in peak rod average burnups exceeding the current limit of 62 GWd/tU. This increase will in turn increase the probability of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD) in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). This effort couples multiple codes to (1) evaluate full-core power histories for high-burnup fuel operated in a Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor, (2) model a postulated large-break LOCA, and (3) calculate the mass of fuel susceptible to FFRD. This paper, the first of three describing the work, focuses on code coupling strategies and FFRD susceptibility calculations. The other two companion papers focus on code-specific designs and analyses. Three codes were used in this work. VERA was used to calculate steady-state power histories, TRACE was used to model the transient thermal hydraulics, and BISON was used to model steady-state and transient fuel performance and cladding failure. Several fuel pulverization models were used to calculate FFRD susceptibility in failed rods. Depending on the cladding failure/fuel pulverization model combination, the core-wide FFRD susceptibility during the postulated LOCA range from 0 to over 5,000 kg.

AB - The US nuclear energy industry is investigating strategies to increase the reactor operating cycle to 24 months, resulting in peak rod average burnups exceeding the current limit of 62 GWd/tU. This increase will in turn increase the probability of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD) in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). This effort couples multiple codes to (1) evaluate full-core power histories for high-burnup fuel operated in a Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor, (2) model a postulated large-break LOCA, and (3) calculate the mass of fuel susceptible to FFRD. This paper, the first of three describing the work, focuses on code coupling strategies and FFRD susceptibility calculations. The other two companion papers focus on code-specific designs and analyses. Three codes were used in this work. VERA was used to calculate steady-state power histories, TRACE was used to model the transient thermal hydraulics, and BISON was used to model steady-state and transient fuel performance and cladding failure. Several fuel pulverization models were used to calculate FFRD susceptibility in failed rods. Depending on the cladding failure/fuel pulverization model combination, the core-wide FFRD susceptibility during the postulated LOCA range from 0 to over 5,000 kg.

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DO - 10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109913

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ER -

Multiphysics analysis of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal susceptibility–Part 1: Overview and code coupling strategies

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