Metallic fuel transient fuel-cladding interface liquefaction model assessment platform enabled by integrating BISON with databases
A novel platform has been developed within the BISON fuel performance code to assess models of fuel-cladding interface liquefaction for sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) metallic fuels. This platform is crucial because liquefaction at the fuel-cladding interface significantly impacts fuel performance and may compromise fuel pin integrity during transient events. To ensure accurate predictions, the platform […]
Fuel Performance Predictions for the TREAT THOR-C Experiments
The Temperature Heatsink Overpower Response Commissioning (THOR-C) and THOR-Metal (THOR-M) experiments will be performed as part of an ongoing project for testing sodium fast reactor fuels with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). The THOR-C experiments consist of fresh metallic fuel pins and have been analyzed using the ABAQUS, Ansys codes and the BISON fuel […]
Preliminary Analysis of a Nuclear Grade Sandwich Composite for Transportable Micro-Reactor Shielding
Transportable microreactors pose a unique shielding challenge compared with conventional reactors. Many vendors are seeking to transport a microreactor to a site, operate it for a number of years, and then transport it to a secondary site. This involves ensuring the reactor has sufficient shielding during operations and post-irradiation transportation to ensure the safety of […]
Transient Analysis of a Micro-reactor using the DireWolf Code Suite
Transient analyses of heat pipe micro-reactors are necessary to ensure that hypothetical accident scenarios do not comprise reactor safety. Due to its small size and reliance on heat-pipes for cooling, the micro-reactor design introduced in this paper is a tightly coupled system which requires multi-physics tools to accurately model transient events. Idaho National Laboratory’s DireWolf […]
Modeling and Analysis of a Micro-reactor using the DireWolf Code Suite
Micro-reactors, specifically those cooled with heat pipes, are tightly coupled systems which require multi-physics tools to accurately model both steady-state and transient behavior. Idaho National Laboratory’s DireWolf code suite is tailor-built to model heat-pipe reactors. DireWolf’s ability to model the coupled steady-state behavior of a heat-pipe micro-reactor are demonstrated herein. The DireWolf modeling methodology is […]
Modeling a TRISO Particle during Extreme Conditions
The behavior of a generic TRISO particle under two extreme conditions was simulated with BISON to help X-energy explore experiment options. The first extreme condition simulated was of a high fast neutron fluence at normal particle power. BISON material models have a limit on fluence value used during calculations. BISON code was modified to disable […]
Modeling Internal Material Melting
The purpose of the SEED LDRD was to create new functionality to model internal material melting and solidification inside the state-of-the-art nuclear fuel performance simulation code BISON.