TY - CONF
T1 - Validation of a pin-based screening methodology for the investigation of pellet-clad interaction during load-follow operation
AU - O'Grady, Daniel
AU - Kozlowski, Tomasz
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part under an Integrated University Program Graduate Fellowship and an appointment to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory HERE Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. The work made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under Contract No. DEAC0705ID14517.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © GLOBAL 2019 - International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference and TOP FUEL 2019 - Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference.All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - In this work we investigated the effect of PWR load-follow operation on fuel failure risk. PWR1, an unnamed commercial reactor which performed load-follow power maneuvers in cycle 21, was modeled using VERA-CS. The linear heat rate and coolant temperature calculated by VERA-CS during the maneuvers were used as boundary conditions for BISON fuel performance calculations. Using the maximum hoop stress as the indicator of fuel failure risk, the different load-follow power maneuvers were compared to the initial start-up ramp. In order to determine the effect load-follow operation has on the fuel failure risk, different characteristics of the maneuvers were compared, e.g the magnitude of the decrease in power, hold period, and the presence of intermediate power steps. No correlations were observed between the characteristics and the resulting maximum clad hoop stress. In order to reduce the number of fuel performance calculations required to determine the safety of subsequent load-follow power maneuver, a pin-based screening method was developed. By selecting the top 1000 fuel rods selected during the screening process, the BISON predicted limiting fuel pin for each maneuver was captured.
AB - In this work we investigated the effect of PWR load-follow operation on fuel failure risk. PWR1, an unnamed commercial reactor which performed load-follow power maneuvers in cycle 21, was modeled using VERA-CS. The linear heat rate and coolant temperature calculated by VERA-CS during the maneuvers were used as boundary conditions for BISON fuel performance calculations. Using the maximum hoop stress as the indicator of fuel failure risk, the different load-follow power maneuvers were compared to the initial start-up ramp. In order to determine the effect load-follow operation has on the fuel failure risk, different characteristics of the maneuvers were compared, e.g the magnitude of the decrease in power, hold period, and the presence of intermediate power steps. No correlations were observed between the characteristics and the resulting maximum clad hoop stress. In order to reduce the number of fuel performance calculations required to determine the safety of subsequent load-follow power maneuver, a pin-based screening method was developed. By selecting the top 1000 fuel rods selected during the screening process, the BISON predicted limiting fuel pin for each maneuver was captured.
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M3 - Paper
AN - SCOPUS:85081087658
SP - 795
EP - 803
T2 - 14th International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference, GLOBAL 2019 and Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference, TOP FUEL 2019
Y2 - 22 September 2019 through 27 September 2019
ER -