A general model for predicting coolant activity behaviour for fuel-failure monitoring analysis

Abstract

a b s t r a c tA mathematical treatment has been developed to predict the release of volatile fission products from operating defective nuclear fuel elements. The fission product activity in both the fuel-to-sheath gap and primary heat transport system as a function of time can be predicted during all reactor operating conditions, including: startup, steady-state, shutdown, and bundle-shifting manoeuvres. In addition, an improved ability to predict the coolant activity of the 135 Xe isotope in commercial reactors is discussed. A method is also proposed to estimate both the burnup and the amount of tramp uranium deposits incore. The model has been validated against in-reactor experiments conducted with defective fuel elements containing natural and artificial failures at the Chalk River Laboratories. Lastly, the model has been benchmarked against a defective fuel occurrence in a commercial reactor.Crown

Modelling of iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking in CANDU fuel

“…(13) can therefore be derived using the flux depression tables for b, k, and j [41]. The volumetrically-averaged thermal neutron flux in the fuel h/i can be determined by estimating the volumetrically-averaged flux in the fuel stack of length ' for a pellet of radius a [42]:…”

Numerical Simulation of Decontamination of Airborne Fission Products during In-Vessel Release Phase by Containment Spray

“…The remaining part of radioisotopes contributes to containment atmosphere along with leakage of coolant with mixing rate 푥 . Thus, the kinetic source ( ) can be explained as follows [38]:…”

Implementation of A Gibbs Energy Minimizer In A Fission-Product Release Computer Program

“…There is overlap between the models in SOURCE 2.0 (and SC11) and those in two other modern computer programs, STAR [24,25] and MFPR [26].…”

“…The STAR code [24,25] was developed, at the Royal Military College of Canada, for analysis of on-power fission-product activity in the Heat Transport System of a CANDU-PHW reactor. It has two modes of operation.…”