The radial distribution of fission gases and other fission products in irradiated PWR fuel

Manzel, R.; Sontheimer, F.; Wurtz, Ron

doi:10.1016/0022-3115(84)90083-7

Cited by 15 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This phenomenon was generally attributed to the combined effect of the temperatures being the highest in the pellets, and of the increasing fission gas build-up. In the studies at high linear powers, and lower burn-ups, such central porous areas were commonly found 31 . This formation of bubbles in the center at high burn-up, without high linear powers, was therefore not studied as much as the HBS phenomenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Restructuring in high burn-up pressurized water reactor UO2 fuel central parts: Experimental 3D characterization by focused ion beam—scanning electron microscopy

Noirot

Dowek

Zacharie-Aubrun

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Physics

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Focussed ion beam - scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) 3D examination was conducted on three standard UO2 and one Cr doped UO2 high burn-up pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel samples. This work complemented other microanalysis examination, including an electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) work on the polished surface. A parallel article giving the EBSD results was submitted simultaneously. Together, they found, in all the central area of these high burn-up samples: (i) a restructuring of the initial grains into smaller sub-grains forming low angle boundaries and with crystal orientations around that of their parent grains; and (ii) intragranular bubbles mostly situated on these low angle boundaries. The FIB-SEM 3D examination showed how such inter-sub-grain bubbles start as small compact but also small lenticular bubbles, similar to typical small intergranular lenticular bubbles. With increasing burn-up, these lenticular bubbles get thicker and locally interlink to form more complex bubbles. However, no long distance networks, between the sub-grains or between the original grains, were found. Such networks could have been a path for part of the fission gases to reach the grain boundaries, the grain edges (the intersection line of three grain boundaries), and the rod free volumes. These FIB-SEM 3D examinations brought details on the intragranular and intergranular bubbles situation for each studied volume. The distribution of the intragranular bubbles according to their sizes and shapes was exposed. The central restructuring, studied in this work, is likely to play a role in the increase of the fission gas release fractions at high burn-up. This work is an incentive to study further this restructuring and the bubbles formed, combining different approaches.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Restructuring in high burn-up pressurized water reactor UO2 fuel central parts: Experimental 3D characterization by focused ion beam—scanning electron microscopy

Noirot

Dowek

Zacharie-Aubrun

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Physics

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show abstract

“…Because of the significance of the noble gases for the design of the fuel rods, numerous investigations have been devoted to their behavior in the fuel, resulting in fission gas behavior models which describe the processes occurring under reactor operating conditions. 32,35,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] For locations in the fuel rod where the average thermal flux is highest, more fission products will be produced. Therefore, a higher concentration of fission products is found within a volume near the rod perimeter than within an equal volume in the center of the rod.…”

Section: Overview Of Fission Product Noble Gas Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%