| Abstract: | A study was made on an incubation burn-up for fission gas release using fuel swelling microstructural analysis. Conclusions of the study are: (1) The fuel microstructural analysis successfully determined the incubation burn-up. The analyzed values agreed with those estimated by the Halden empirical gas release model. (2) The incubation burn-up obtained from the Halden model was correlated with the fuel center temperature, but the micro-structural analysis was more dependent on the local fuel swelling temperature. (3) The incubation burn-up was attributed to the grain boundary diffusion process and the fuel local gaseous swelling. |
