Early phase fuel degradation in Phébus FP: Initiating phenomena of degradation in fuel bundle tests

Luze, O. de; Haste, T.; Barrachin, M.; Repetto, G.

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2012.10.026

Cited by 27 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This experimental campaign was carried out in the integral Phébus facility at the "Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire" (IRSN) laboratories in Cadarache (F). Five integral tests were performed, investigating the main processes affecting the severe degradation of the nuclear fuel and control rods, the release of FPs and control materials, their transport through the reactor coolant circuit, and their deposition as aerosols in the containment vessel [4][5][6]. Different fuel burn-up levels, control rod materials, and thermal-hydraulic conditions were investigated [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stand-Alone Containment Analysis of the Phébus FPT Tests with the ASTEC and the MELCOR Codes: The FPT-0 Test

Bruno

Paci

2017

Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

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The integral Phébus tests were probably one of the most important experimental campaigns performed to investigate the progression of severe accidents in light water reactors. In these tests, the degradation of a PWR fuel bundle was investigated employing different control rod materials and burn-up levels in strongly or weakly oxidizing conditions. From the results of such tests, numerical codes such as ASTEC and MELCOR have been developed to describe the evolution of a severe accident. After the termination of the experimental Phébus campaign, these two codes were furthermore expanded. Therefore, the aim of the present work is to reanalyze the first Phébus test (FPT-0) employing the updated ASTEC and MELCOR versions to ensure that the new improvements introduced in such codes allow also a better prediction of these Phébus tests. The analysis focuses on the stand-alone containment aspects of this test, and the paper summarizes the main thermal-hydraulic results and presents different sensitivity analyses carried out on the aerosols and fission products behavior. This paper is part of a series of publications covering the four executed Phébus tests employing a solid PWR fuel bundle: FPT-0, FPT-1, FPT-2, and FPT-3.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stand-Alone Containment Analysis of the Phébus FPT Tests with the ASTEC and the MELCOR Codes: The FPT-0 Test

Bruno

Paci

2017

Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

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“…This bundle degradation scenario under oxygen starvation conditions is not totally unknown since it has been much studied in the QUENCH program at KIT (Steinbruck et al, 2010 andSteinbruck, 2014) and also in steam environment within the international PHEBUS Fission Products program at IRSN (De Luze et al, 2013).…”

Section: Experiments Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and validation of the multi-physics DRACCAR code

Bascou

Luze

Ederli

et al. 2015

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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“…De Luze et al [6] summarized the failure temperatures of Ag-In-Cd control rods in different experiments, including CORA-9, QUENCH-13, and Phebus FPT1. e failure temperatures of control rods in most experiments are between 1400 and 1700 K. It can be concluded that the eutectic reaction between the solid stainless steel and the zirconium alloy is the reason for the partial melting of the cladding and guide tube at about 1400 K, while the dissolution of zirconium by the molten stainless steel and Ag-In-Cd absorber causes the guide tube to be broken in a wide range at around 1700 K.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation and Validation for Early Core Degradation Phase under Severe Accidents

Zhan

Zhao

Xia

et al. 2020

Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

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Early core degradation determines the amount of hydrogen generated by cladding oxidation as well as the temperature, the mass, and the composition of corium that further relocates into the lower head of reactor pressure vessel (RPV), which is essential for the effectiveness analysis of in-vessel retention (IVR) and hydrogen recombiners. In this paper, the mechanisms of controlling phenomena in the early phase of core degradation are analysed at first. Then, numerical models adopted to calculate (1) core heating up, (2) cladding oxidation, (3) dissolution between molten zirconium and fuel pellets, and (4) formation of a molten pool in the core active section are presented. Compared with integral codes for severe accident analysis (such as MAAP and MELCOR), the models in this paper are established at the fuel pin level and the calculation is performed in 3D, which can capture the detail local phenomena during the core degradation and eliminate the average effect due to equivalent rings used in integral codes. In addition, most of the control equations in this paper are calculated by implicit schemes, which can improve the accuracy and stability of the calculation. In the simulation, the calculation oxidation is calculated by using the oxygen diffusion model, while the dissolution is calculated with Kim, Hayward, Hofmann, and IBRAE models to perform uncertainty analysis. For the validation, the cladding oxidation model is verified by Olander theoretical cases in the conditions of both steam-rich and steam-starved. The dissolution models are validated by the RIAR experiment. The code is overall verified by Phebus FPT0 on the integral phase of core early degradation. According to the simulation results, it can be inferred that the dissolution reaction between the molten zirconium and fuel pellets is the main reason for the melting of UO2 at low temperature. In the case of starved steam, part of the fuel pellets can melt down even at 2248 K and relocate to the bottom of the core, which is much lower than the melting point of UO2 (3113 K).

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Early phase fuel degradation in Phébus FP: Initiating phenomena of degradation in fuel bundle tests

Cited by 27 publications

References 14 publications

Stand-Alone Containment Analysis of the Phébus FPT Tests with the ASTEC and the MELCOR Codes: The FPT-0 Test

Stand-Alone Containment Analysis of the Phébus FPT Tests with the ASTEC and the MELCOR Codes: The FPT-0 Test

Development and validation of the multi-physics DRACCAR code

Numerical Simulation and Validation for Early Core Degradation Phase under Severe Accidents

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