LWR Fuel Safety Research with Particular Emphasis on RIA/LOCA and Other Conditions

Fuel safety research at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) is reviewed on the major subjects including studies on fuel behavior under postulated Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA), postulated Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) and normal operating conditions. Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) at JAERI has been utilized extensively for the studies of fuel behavior under RIA conditions. For the studies of fuel rod and cladding behavior under LOCA conditions, outpile experiments were conducted. The work on this subject has been concluded. Pellet Cladding Interaction (PCI) has been major subject on fuel integrity study during normal operating conditions. Irradiation experiments at Halden Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR) as well as code development are described.     

Ion Exchange Technology in Spent Fuel Reprocessing

Solvent extraction is the major unit operation employed in spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. The operation yields three streams; fission product waste, uranium product and plutonium product. Ion exchange is primarily used in reprocessing as a tail-end method to concentrate and isolate the plutonium product stream. This review will describe the details of plutonium recovery and purification by both cation- and anion-exchange processing. A brief overview of miscellaneous uses of ion-exchange employed in reprocessing will also be given.     

Development of In-Situ Gas Analyzer for Hydrogen Isotopes in Fusion Fuel Gas Processing

To develop a real time and in-situ process gas analyzer for fusion fuel gas processing systems, application study of laser Raman spectroscopy was performed by measurement of hydrogen isotopes. Using an Ari on type laser of which wavelength 488 nm, power 0.7 W, and single pass irradiation method, Raman spectra of hydrogen isotopes were measured and intensities of the Stokes rotational lines and Q-branch were quantitatively analyzed. The Stokes rotational lines at 587, 443 and 415 cm¹ were selected as suitable ones for quantitative analysis of H₂, HD and D₂. Normalizing the Raman intensity of partial pressure H₂ as 100, relative Raman intensity ratio of H₂:HD:D₂ was obtained as 100:58:47. The detection limit for hydrogen was estimated as 0.05 kPa in partial pressure and 500 ppm in concentration. But multiple pass method further improved the detection limit to 100 ppm.     

Feasibility of Fast Fission System Confining Long-Lived Nuclides

The feasibility of fast fission system confining long-lived nuclides without other supporting system as synergetics for fuel sustainment and waste incineration was studied from the aspects of nuclear material balance and neutron economy. The continuous utilization of fast fission system which confines all actinides in the reactor but discharges all FP will lead to huge accumulation of radioactive wastes such as ¹²⁹I, ¹³⁵Cs, ¹⁰⁷Pd, ⁹³Zr, ⁹⁹Tc, ¹²⁶Sn and ⁷⁹Se in the far future. Then we studied the feasibility of the system that these long-lived seven FP are also confined in the reactor with actinides. In this scheme, all the long-lived nuclides to be disposed of were exposed with neutrons in the reactor and removed as different nuclides after nuclear transmutation. As the wastes stored in the repository was composed of only shorter-lived nuclides, total amount of radioactive wastes in the repository was suppressed to be less than a few tons per 3 GWt reactor.     

Thermochemical and Experimental Considerations of NOx Composition and Iodine Species in the Dissolution of Spent PWR-Fuel Specimens

Abstract

The NO_x composition and iodine species in the dissolution of spent fuels are discussed on the basis of thermochemical calculations and experimental results. The influence of N0_x sparging on the expulsion of iodine is also discussed. The dissolution of a spent PWR-fuel specimen (–3g) in 30 ml of 3.5_MHNO₃ at 100°C is calculated to yield a concentration of 7×10^?2atm of N0₂, which is 80% of the total NO_X in the dissolver. This N0₂ fraction is much higher than experimental values of 15% or less that were reported for dissolver off-gas cooled near to room temperature. The high N0₂ fraction suppresses the formation of iodate (IO₃ ^?) in the dissolution. The calculations predict that IO₃ ^?) is not formed in 3.5 M HNO₃ at 100°C at an NO₂ pressure ≥3×10^?2 atm (3kPa). Attempts to expel iodine from the fuel solution indicated that the main iodine species in the solution was colloidal iodine and not iodate (I0₃ ^?) which earlier workers postulated. The obtained experimental results are consistent with the thermochemical predictions. For the decomposition of the colloidal iodine in the expulsion process, NO₂ sparging has a negative effect. This is because an increase in NO₂ pressure promotes the formation of colloidal Agl.     

Evaluation of Hot Spot Factors for Thermal and Hydraulic Design of HTTR

Abstract

High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) is a graphite-moderated and helium gas-cooled reactor with 30 MW in thermal power and 950°C in reactor outlet coolant temperature. One of the major items in thermal and hydraulic design of the HTTR is to evaluate the maximum fuel temperature with a sufficient margin from a viewpoint of integrity of coated fuel particles. Hot spot factors are considered in the thermal and hydraulic design to evaluate the fuel temperature not only under the normal operation condition but also under any transient condition conservatively. This report summarizes the items of hot spot factors selected in the thermal and hydraulic design and their estimated values, and also presents evaluation results of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the HTTR briefly.     

Protective Oxide Film on Alloy X750 Formed in Air at 973 K

An effective pre-oxidation method for Alloy X750 was developed to reduce general corrosion in an oxygenated aqueous environment such as in BWR core water. The optimum condition of preoxidation in air at elevated temperatures was found to be 5–20 h at 973 K by considering the allowance condition of heat treatment for age-hardening.

Some characteristics of the corroded oxide film have been clarified by surface analyses with XMA, SIMS, AES, XPS etc. The film was composed of double oxide layers, namely a highly crystallized NiFe₂O₄ outer layer and a high Cr₂O₃ content inner layer. The passive property of the film has been recognized to be due to the nature of the oxides whereby NiFe₂O₄ restricts the dissolution of metals because of its low solubility and Cr₂O₃ restricts the diffusion of metal ions because of its high binding energy and low diffusion coefficient.     

Fission Gas Induced Cladding Deformation of LWR Fuel Rods under Reactivity Initiated Accident Conditions

Behavior of irradiated fuel rods under power burst conditions by accidental reactivity insertion in light water reactors (LWRs) has been studied in the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR). In the experiments, cladding hoop deformation, which reached up to about 10%, was much larger than that of the fresh rods. The current LWR fuel behavior analysis codes, which only take account of the thermal expansion of the fuel pellets for the deformation calculation, under-predicted the plastic deformation of the cladding to be less than about 1%. Fission gas release during the pulse irradiation tests reached as high as 22% in the NSRR irradiated fuel tests. In order to describe these test results, a model of grain boundary fission gases to cause the cladding deformation has been developed and installed in a fuel behavior simulation code, FRAP-T6. In the model, the over-pressurized gases by the pulse irradiation cause grain boundary separation and stress the cladding during the tests. The model assumes that the gases remain in the fuel during the early part of pulse irradiation and are released to the open volume in the rod after the cladding deformation. The model, in combination with a fuel thermal expansion model, GAPCON, which was validated through fresh fuel tests, reproduces the NSRR test results reasonably well.     

Optical Trappings of ThO2 and UO2 Particles Using Radiation Pressure of a Visible Laser Light

Optical trappings of ThO₂ and UO₂ particles have been first demonstrated in water using the radiation pressure of a TEM₀₀-mode He-Ne laser beam of λ=633 nm. It was observed that a ThO₂ particle was successfully trapped three-dimensionally in the focus region and transferred by moving the focus. On the other hand, for a UO₂ particle of which a refractive index and an extinction coefficient are relatively large in the visible region, only two-dimensional trapping was observed when the beam focus was located near the bottom of the particle. One of the main difficulties in the optical trapping of nuclear fuel particles is attributed to their relatively large absorption coefficients in the visible region. Computational studies on three-dimensional optical trapping performances of absorbing particles were, therefore, perfomed with a simulation code based on geometrical optics. The present calculation can well predict the experimental results on the optical trapping characteristics for ThO₂ and UO₂ particles.