Fuel performance evaluation of two high burnup PWR core designs during normal operation, control rod withdrawal, and control rod ejection scenarios
There is interest among utilities to extend the current, 18-month operating cycle to 24 months. Economically, this extension would require greater than 5 % enrichment and peak rod average discharge burnup levels above 62 GWd/MTU. A notable challenge of increasing enrichment is the resulting additional excess reactivity encountered during the early stages of fuel life. […]
Uranium-zirconium hydride nuclear fuel performance in the NaK-cooled MARVEL microreactor
The Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation (MARVEL) Project is producing a high temperature NaK-cooled nuclear reactor test bed at the Idaho National Laboratory to ultimately improve integration of microreactors to end-user applications. This ambitious effort seeks to design, authorize, construct, test, and operate the reactor within five years. The computational software package chosen for […]
Compare Mechanistic Predictions for Doped UO2 Mechanical Response and Other Properties with Empirical Models and Experimental Measurements
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program develops predictive capabilities using computational methods for the analysis and design of advanced reactor and fuel cycle systems. This program has been supporting the development of BISON, a high-fidelity, high resolution fuel performance tool at the engineering scale. As part of its development, […]
Development and application of sorption mass transfer models for fission product transport in TRISO fuel systems using BISON
Fission product mass transfer within and between TRISO particle and compact layers is an important phenomenon. It directly impacts fission product release predictions, which are used as source terms for safety and licensing calculations. Modeling fission product transport within layers and across bonded interfaces is relatively straightforward under the assumptions of isotropic Fickian diffusion, concentration […]
Develop and Connect TRISO Failure Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification to Fission Product Release Calculation Capability
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program aims to develop predictive capabilities by applying computational methods to the analysis and design of advanced reactor and fuel cycle systems. This program has been providing engineering-scale support for the development of BISON, a high-fidelity and high-resolution fuel performance tool. Stress-based failure […]
Bayesian uncertainty quantification of tristructural isotropic particle fuel silver release: Decomposing model inadequacy plus experimental noise and parametric uncertainties
Tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel is one of the most promising fuel concepts enabling high temperature and high burnup reactor operation. One dominant source of radioactivity released from the TRISO particles is silver (Ag), which is subject to a high release fraction and long decay life compared to other fission products. Previous modeling efforts using […]
Massively Parallel Bayesian Model Calibration and Uncertainty Quantification with Applications to Nuclear Fuels and Materials
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program aims to develop predictive capabilities by applying computational methods to the analysis and design of advanced reactor and fuel cycle systems. This program has been providing engineering-scale support for the development of BISON, a high-fidelity and high-resolution fuel performance tool. Fuel […]
Pressurized Water Reactor Control Rod Ejection Analysis Using PARCS, RELAP5-3D, and BISON for High Burnup Fuel
This paper describes safety assessment of high burnup fuel (HBF) during loss of coolant accidents (LOCA), reactivity-initiated accidents (RIA), and anticipated operational occurrences (AOOs) for Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle Electric Generating plant (VEGP). A goal of this project is to create a multiphysics modeling approach in aspects of thermal hydraulics, neutronics, and fuel performance, as well […]
Metallic Fuel Performance Benchmarks for Versatile Test Reactor Applications
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) project is designing a new fast-spectrum test reactor. The VTR reference driver fuel design is sodium-bonded U-20Pu-10Zr (wt%) metallic fuel and HT-9 cladding. The BISON fuel performance code is being used to model the VTR driver fuel pin to evaluate the effects […]
Advancements in modeling fuel pulverization and cladding behavior during a LOCA
During a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), there is the possibility of nuclear fuel rods to undergo a three step process known as fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD). The chance of FFRD occurring increases as the fuel burnup increases. To support the nuclear industry’s desire to increase the discharge burnup of nuclear fuels in […]