limiting characteristics of the new accident tolerant fuel cladding...

Current Nuclear Fuel SystemATF Coated Cladding Concepts

Previous WorkObjectives of the Dissertation

Limiting Characteristics of the New AccidentTolerant Fuel Cladding Concepts

Study on the Dissertation

Ing. Martin Ševecek

CZECH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITYFaculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering

Department of Nuclear Reactors

September 23, 2016Supervisor: Ing. Mojmír Valach, CSc.

Consultants: Dr. Ronald G. Ballinger, Ing. Ondrej Huml, Ph.D.

Ing. Martin Ševecek Limiting Characteristics of ATF Cladding



Traditional UO2+Zr Alloy Fuel

• Uranium (MOX) fuel in the form of pellets-in-cladding type fuelrods is used in all LWRs which constitute more than 90 % ofthe installed nuclear power

• There is a long-term (approx. 70 years) experience, researchand databases available

• It proved to be eligible for reactor operation and performs verywell in most of conditions except a few rare events

• Serves as a baseline and reference for new fuel development• Represents huge financial investments so any change to the

current design has to be well justified




Nuclear Fuel Cladding

Alloy Sn (wt.%) Nb (wt.%) O (wt.%) Fe (wt.%) Cr (wt.%) Ni (wt.%) ZrZry-2 1.45 - 0.125 0.14 0.1 0.06 BalanceZry-4 1.45 - 0.125 0.21 0.1 - BalanceZIRLO 1.1 1.1 0.12 0.1 - - BalanceLow Sn ZIRLO 0.7 1.0 0.12 0.1 - - BalanceM5 - 1 0.135 0.038 - - BalanceE110 - 1 0.06 0.009 - - BalanceE635 1.3 1 0.09 0.4 - - Balance




Accident Tolerant Fuels

• Accident Tolerant Fuels can tolerate a severe accident in the reactor core for aconsiderably longer time period than the current UO2–Zr alloy fuel system, whilemaintaining or improving the fuel performance during normal operations andoperational transients.

• Coping Time is the time to significant loss of geometry such that the fuel can nolonger be cooled or cannot be removed from the reactor.




Cladding Coatings

PVD Process Cold Spray ProcessPossible to deposit MAX phases; but limited to pow-ders that are commercially available; Possible to de-posit FeCrAl, if powders are available

Possible to deposit a wide range of MAX phases;sputter cathodes of elements need to be available;Possible to deposit FeCrAl; using alloy sputter cath-ode or individual element sputter cathodes

Slow deposition process; Needs vacuum chambers High deposition rates; Under ambient conditionsCoating thicknesses typically a few single microns;but up to 2 mm thickness is possible; Typically coarsegrained microstructure

Coating thicknesses hundred microns or higher typi-cal; with appropriate control coating thickness can bebrought to 2 mm; Fine grained structure




Cladding Coatings to be Studied

Based on evaluation metrics, preliminary tests and availability ofmaterials three coatings will be studied. Two MAX phases: Ti-Al-Cand Ti-Si-C and one metallic coating: FeCrAl




Related Work I

• Evaluation Metrics Applied to Accident Tolerant Fuel CladdingConcepts

• UO2+Th Heterogeneous Fuel Design• High-Temperature Oxidation of Coated Zr-1Nb Alloy

(electrolytic E110) - CrN, Cr coatings• Fuel performance models - FRAPCON/FRAPTRAN;

TRANURANUS; BISON;




Related Work II

• Irradiation damage of the Cladding Coatings

• Corrosion of the Zr-base Alloys

• Uranium Thermal Conductivity Measurements

• System models in Relap; TRACE as a source for boundaryconditions (need for severe accident modelling - MELCOR,MAAP, SOKRAT...)




Manufacturing and Characterization of Coated CladdingSamples

• Manufacturing of ATF cladding coating samples using differenttechniques (PVD, cold-spray, evaporating)

• Thermal properties measurements

• Mechanical properties measurements

• Thermal conductivity, heat capacity and emissivitymeasurements

• Adhesion and adhesion strength

• Creep tests (thermal and mechanical), bend tests, elasticmodulus measurements, ductility, hardness




Modeling of ATF Ion Irradiation

• Manufactured samples will be irradiated at the Texas A&MUniversity by different accelerators

• Fast irradiation compared to reactor irradiation, very high dpais achievable, different sources and energies can be combined

• Irradiation will be simulated by Monte Carlo based systemSRIM/TRIM to determine levels of irradiation damage




Characterization of Coated Cladding Samples

• Autoclave Steady Corrosion Testing

• High Temperature Oxidation

• Thermal Shock Testing

Unirradiated Proper-ties

LWR Corro-sion

High Temp.Oxidation

ThermalShock

ThermalProperties

MechanicalProperties

Ti-Al-C Limited Limited Limited Yes LimitedTi-Si-C Limited Limited Limited Yes LimitedFeCrAl Yes Yes Yes Yes YesZircaloy-4 Yes Yes Yes Yes YesIrradiated Properties LWR Corro-

sionHigh Temp.Oxidation

ThermalShock

ThermalProperties

MechanicalProperties

Ti-Al-C No No No No NoTi-Si-C No No No No NoFeCrAl No No No Limited LimitedZircaloy-4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes




Fuel Performance Modeling

• Fuel performance modelling using traditional fuel performancecodes (FRAPCON/FRAPTRAN, TRANSURANUS)

• Advanced multiphysics models in the MOOSE framework(BISON, MARMOT, RELAP7, RattleSnake)

• Implementation of correlations and characteristics measuredfor particular ATF concept

• Multi-code utilization for code-to-code V&V

• All results will be compared to traditional UO2–Zr fuel systemperformance




Evaluation of ATF Cladding Concepts

• Based on developed evaluation metrics

• Consistent evaluation with the OECD/NEA evaluation process[3]

• Comparison of concepts and their characteristics

• Basic economic evaluation

• Recommendation for future improvements and determinationof the best concept




Final Remarks

• Dissertation is tight to the MIT’s project “Development of Accident Tolerant FuelOptions For Near Term Applications” which involves two industry collaborators(AREVA and Anatech) and three other universities (U. of Wisconsin, Texas A&M, andPenn State U.)

• Development of the ATF fuels included in the long-term strategy of the Department ofNuclear Reactors

• Student grant No. SGS16/252/OHK4/3T/14 focused on “New Cladding Concepts forthe Accident Tolerant Fuel and their Limiting Characteristics” received in 01/2016

• Nominated for Expert Group on Accident Tolerant Fuels for Light Water Reactors inthe OECD/NEA where results and progress can be reported

• Applied for research contract at the IAEA within CRP project “Analysis of Options andExperimental Examination of Fuels for Water-Cooled Reactors with IncreaseAccident Tolerance” which will allow international cooperation with other world-classresearch teams

• Due to unavailability of experimental facilities (autoclaves, furnaces, microscopesetc.) other research organizations will be involved (UJP, ÚJV, CV)


1) Prubeh ilustracních havárií

• Zasedání EGATFL - definice ilustracních scénáru pro hodnocení ATF paliv

• Report distribuován mezi cleny k pripomínkám; bude dostupný na jare 2017

• NEA Workshop on Nuclear fuel modelling in support of safety and performanceenhancement of water-cooled reactors (March 2017)

• Dle clánku Evaluation metrics... - definovány dva scénáre: nízko- a vysoko-tlaký

• Vysokotlaký - dlouhé SBO - do selhání reaktorové nádoby

• Nízkotlaký - LBLOCA bez ECCS

• Na základe techto scénáru bude urcen “coping time”, který je poskytnut konkrétnímkonceptem

• Krome techto havárií je samozrejme nutné prepocítat klasické DBA - licencní proces


2) Zdroj kapitola 4.5

• Development of High Thermal Conductivity UO2–ThHeterogeneous Fuel

• Nuclear Engineering and Design; submitted 01Aug2016

• Koncept vymyšlený na FS CVUT, se kterým jsem autorovipomáhal


3) Radiacní poškození

• Ozarování težkými ionty na Texas A&M

• Výhody - krátký cas, dostupné zarízení, možnost studiaadheze tenké vrstvy, lze studovat zmeny chování materiálu priozárení (pouze vrstva a prechod; vlastnosti substrátu jsouznámé)

• Nevýhody - špatná prenositelnost do reálných podmínek;musí být stejne provedeny testy v reaktoru (HRP); takto lzespíše koncept vyloucit než potvrdit jeho komplexní chování priozárení


4) Testy v autoklávech

• Vzorky v autoklávu - testy pri fixních parametrech; lze menitse chemii PO (PWR, VVER, BWR) nebo teplotu; parametryjsou však fixní

• Jde o testy zejména korozní odolnosti nikoliv testy THparametru paliva

• Cílem je zkoumání adheze; korozní kinetiky (hmotnostníprírustek); koroze pri narušení vrstvicky (oxidace probíhá podnanesenou vrstvou)

• Ozárením težkými ionty se zmení materiálová struktura akorozní kinetika bude jiná; jde predevším o vliv na vrstvunikoliv na substrát


Pripomínky k práci

• Tepelná roztažnost paliva, tepelná vodivost paliva, vlivy vyhorení - okrajove kvulizamerení na pokrytí (práce mela puvodne pres 120 stran)

• Vliv vyhorení na teplotu tavení - velmi sporné dle použitého zdroje

• Výber a zduvodnení LOCA a RIA - klasické licencní výpocty overující kritériaprijatelnosti pro palivový systém

• Širší rešerše v kapitolách 3. a 4. - kapitola 4 je souhrn vlastní práce nikoliv rešerše;kapitola 3 predstavuje tri vybrané materiály, možnosti nanášení a základní dostupnévlastnosti;

• Citování literatury - kapitoly 4, 5 a 6 jsou vlastní práce nikoliv rešerše; nekteré zclánku ješte nebyly vydány, proto je jejich citace problematická;

• Výber materiálu probehl na základe vytvorených hodnotích metrik (jak je v práciuvedeno), které jsou popsány v kapitole 5; více viz. clánek Evaluation MetricsApplied to Accident Tolerant Fuel Cladding Concepts for VVER Reactors


Fig.: Hodnotící metriky pro vyhodocení jednotlivých ATF konceptu


References I

Lori Braase.Enhanced accident tolerant lwr fuels national metrics workshop report.Technical report, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), 2013.

Shannon Bragg-Sitton.Development of advanced accident-tolerant fuels for commercial lwrs.Nuclear News, pages 83–91, 2014.

Shannon M Bragg-Sitton, Jon Carmack, and Frank Goldner.Evaluation metrics applied to accident tolerant fuels.Technical report, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), 2014.

D.G. Cacuci.Handbook of Nuclear Engineering: Vol. 1: Nuclear Engineering Fundamentals; Vol. 2: Reactor Design; Vol. 3:Reactor Analysis; Vol. 4: Reactors of Generations III and IV; Vol. 5: Fuel Cycles, Decommissioning, WasteDisposal and Safeguards.Handbook of Nuclear Engineering. Springer, 2010.

LY Cheng, A Cuadra, and N Brown.PWR plant model to assess performance of accident tolerant fuel in anticipated transients and accidents.Technical report, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), 2014.

EGATFL.Light water reactor accident tolerant fuel: Evaluation metrics and technology readiness level definition.Technical report, OECD/NEA, 2016.


References II

MT Farmer, Leonard Leibowitz, Kurt A Terrani, and Kevin R Robb.Scoping assessments of atf impact on late-stage accident progression including molten core–concrete interaction.Journal of Nuclear Materials, 448(1):534–540, 2014.

KJ Geelhood and WG Luscher.FRAPCON-3.5: integral assessment.2014.

Isabel Idarraga-Trujillo, Marion Le Flem, Jean-Christophe Brachet, Matthieu Le Saux, Didier Hamon, SébastienMuller, Valérie Vandenberghe, Marc Tupin, Emilie Papin, Eric Monsifrot, et al.Assessment at CEA of coated nuclear fuel cladding for LWRs with increased margins in LOCA and beyond LOCAconditions.In Conference Paper) LWR Fuel Performance Meeting, Top Fuel 2013, volume 2, pages 860–867, 2013.

Yang-Hyun Koo, Jae-Ho Yang, Jeong-Yong Park, Keon-Sik Kim, Hyun-Gil Kim, Dong-Joo Kim, Yang-Il Jung, andKun-Woo Song.Kaeri’s development of lwr accident-tolerant fuel.Nuclear Technology, 186(2):295–304, 2014.

Marion Le Flem, Xingmin Liu, Sylvie Doriot, Th Cozzika, Fabien Onimus, and Jean-Luc Bechade.Ti3(Si,Al)C2 for nuclear application: investigation of irradiation effects induced by charged particles.2010.

Xingmin Liu, Marion Le Flem, Jean-Luc Béchade, and Isabelle Monnet.Nanoindentation investigation of heavy ion irradiated Ti3(Si,Al)C2.


References III

Y Yamamoto, BA Pint, KA Terrani, KG Field, Y Yang, and LL Snead.Development and property evaluation of nuclear grade wrought fecral fuel cladding for light water reactors.Journal of Nuclear Materials, 467:703–716, 2015.

Steven J Zinkle, Kurt A Terrani, Jess C Gehin, Larry J Ott, and Lance Lewis Snead.Accident tolerant fuels for LWRs: A perspective.Journal of Nuclear Materials, 448(1):374–379, 2014.

[9], [2], [13], [14], [8], [11], [10], [6], [7], [5], [12],[1]


limiting characteristics of the new accident tolerant fuel cladding...

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