TY - JOUR
T1 - Fuel Performance Design Basis for the Versatile Test Reactor
AU - Porter, D. L.
AU - Crawford, D. C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is the result of efforts supporting the VTR project and was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy. The submitted manuscript was authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under DOE contract number DE-AC07-05ID14517.
Publisher Copyright:
© This material is published by permission of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Engergy under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517. The US Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, non-exclusive, and irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.
PY - 2022/1/13
Y1 - 2022/1/13
N2 - The Fuel Performance Design Basis for the Versatile Test Reactor begins with requirements to maintain safe and efficient reactor operation. For the metal-fueled Versatile Test Reactor, this means a limited number of fuel rod breaches, no fuel melting under steady-state operation and anticipated transients, and continuity of the fuel rod and assembly configuration to avoid impacts to operations of safety systems, maintain expected coolant flow, and allow for efficient fuel handling. Using a large database gathered from previous testing, data were examined to identify and establish preliminary limits on fuel operating conditions. Fuel performance aspects important to fuel operating limits have been identified, including cladding creep, which is addressed with a cladding deformation limit to ensure a limited cladding breach. In addition, fuel-cladding chemical interaction is addressed through limits on cladding temperature and time-at-temperature for steady-state operation, transients, and accidents to mitigate effects leading to cladding breach or fuel melting. Through the implementation of these limits, cladding breach, fuel melting, and deleterious fuel rod and assembly dimensional changes will be prevented.
AB - The Fuel Performance Design Basis for the Versatile Test Reactor begins with requirements to maintain safe and efficient reactor operation. For the metal-fueled Versatile Test Reactor, this means a limited number of fuel rod breaches, no fuel melting under steady-state operation and anticipated transients, and continuity of the fuel rod and assembly configuration to avoid impacts to operations of safety systems, maintain expected coolant flow, and allow for efficient fuel handling. Using a large database gathered from previous testing, data were examined to identify and establish preliminary limits on fuel operating conditions. Fuel performance aspects important to fuel operating limits have been identified, including cladding creep, which is addressed with a cladding deformation limit to ensure a limited cladding breach. In addition, fuel-cladding chemical interaction is addressed through limits on cladding temperature and time-at-temperature for steady-state operation, transients, and accidents to mitigate effects leading to cladding breach or fuel melting. Through the implementation of these limits, cladding breach, fuel melting, and deleterious fuel rod and assembly dimensional changes will be prevented.
KW - design basis
KW - fast reactor
KW - nuclear fuel
KW - Versatile Test Reactor
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85122865643
U2 - 10.1080/00295639.2021.2009983
DO - 10.1080/00295639.2021.2009983
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122865643
SN - 0029-5639
VL - 196
SP - 110
EP - 122
JO - Nuclear Science and Engineering
JF - Nuclear Science and Engineering
IS - sup1
ER -