tecdoc-1416

329 Pages·2004·7.96 MB·English

IAEA-TECDOC-1416
Advanced fuel pellet materials and
designs for water cooled reactors
Proceedings of a technical committee meeting
held in Brussels, 20–24 October 2003
October 2004
IAEA-TECDOC-1416
Advanced fuel pellet materials and
designs for water cooled reactors
Proceedings of a technical committee meeting
held in Brussels, 20–24 October 2003
October 2004
The originating Section of this publication in the IAEA was:
Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section
International Atomic Energy Agency
Wagramer Strasse 5
P.O. Box 100
A-1400 Vienna, Austria
ADVANCED FUEL PELLET MATERIALS AND DESIGNS FOR
WATER COOLED REACTORS
IAEA, VIENNA, 2004
IAEA-TECDOC-1416
ISBN 92–0–111404–4
ISSN 1011–4289
© IAEA, 2004
Printed by the IAEA in Austria
October 2004
FOREWORD
At the invitation of the Government of Belgium, and in response to a proposal of the IAEA
Technical Working Group on Water Reactor Fuel Performance and Technology (TWGFPT),
the IAEA convened a Technical Committee Meeting on Improved Fuel Improved Fuel Pellet
Materials and Designs in Brussels, Belgium from 20 to 24 October 2003. The meeting was
hosted by Belgatom.
This meeting was the second IAEA meeting on this subject. The first was held in 1996 in
Tokyo, Japan. They are all part of a cooperative effort through the TWGFPT, with a series of
three further meetings organized by CEA, France and co-sponsored by the IAEA and
OECD/NEA. The first meeting was entitled Thermal Performance of High Burnup LWR Fuel
and was held in 1998. The second meeting was entitled Fission Gas Behaviour in Water
Reactor Fuels and took place in 2000, and the third meeting, Pellet-cladding Interaction, was
held in March 2004. All four meetings supplemented each other.
In the seven years since the first meeting took place, the demands on fuel duties have
increased, with higher burnup, longer fuel cycles and higher temperatures. This places
additional demands on fuel performance to comply with safety requirements. Criteria relative
to fuel components, i.e. pellets and fuel rod column, require limiting of fission gas release and
pellet–cladding interaction (PCI). This means that fuel components should maintain the
composite of rather contradictory properties from the beginning until the end of its in-pile
operation. Fabrication and design tools are available to influence —and to some extent — to
ensure desirable in-pile fuel properties. Discussion of these tools was one of the objectives of
the meeting. The second objective was the analysis of fuel characteristics at high burnup and
the third and last objective was the discussion of specific feature of MOX and urania-
gadolinia fuels.
Sixty specialists in the field of fuel fabrication technology attended the meeting from 18
countries. Twenty-five papers were presented in five sessions covering all relevant topics
from the practices and modelling of fuel fabrication technology to its optimization.
The proceedings in this publication are accompanied by a CD-ROM, which has been
organized in two parts. The first part contains a full set of the papers presented at the meeting.
The second contains the full presentations reproduced from the original slides, and therefore
more information is included than in part one.
The IAEA wishes to thank all the participants for their contributions to the meeting and to this
publication, especially H. Druenne of Tractebel Energy Engineering and his staff for assisting
with administrative matters and H. Bairiot of FEX who organized a technical visit to CEN-
SCK in Mol, Belgium. J. Van Vyve, Chairman of Belgatom, chaired the meeting. The IAEA
officer responsible for this publication was V. Onufriev of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle
and Waste Technology.
EDITORIAL NOTE
The papers in these proceedings are reproduced as submitted by the authors and have not undergone
rigorous editorial review by the IAEA.
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the IAEA, the governments of the nominating
Member States or the nominating organizations.
The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the
publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and
institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries.
The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does
not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement
or recommendation on the part of the IAEA.
The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce,
translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights.
CONTENTS
Summary……………………………………………………………………………………. 1
OPTIMIZATION OF FUEL FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY — PRACTICES AND
MODELLING (Session 1)
Recent developments in design and manufacture of uranium dioxide fuel
pellets for PHWRs in India.............................................................................................13
R. N. Jayaraj, C. Ganguly
Finite element modelling of the pressing of nuclear oxide powders to predict
the shape of LWR fuel pellets after die compaction and sintering.................................21
G. Delette, Ph. Sornay, J. Blancher
Mixed oxides pellets obtention by the “Reverse Strike”
co-precipitation method..................................................................................................31
J.E. Menghini, D.E. Marchi, V.G. Trimarco, E.H. Orosco
Establishment of low density MOX pellet fabrication process................................................45
K. Asakura, T. Ohtani
Development of technologies of nuclear ceramic grade fuel production.................................55
S.A. Yashin, A.E. Gagarin, A.V. Manych
Evaluation of U-reclaimed fuel application in VVER reactors................................................69
V.N. Proselkov, S.S. Aleshin, V.D. Sidorenko, P.D. Slaviagin
A.V. Kuleshov, O.V. Milovanov, E.N. Mikheev, V.V. Novikov, Yu.V. Pimenov
Development of UO /MOX fuels of modified microstructure
2
for improved performance..............................................................................................77
U. Basak, S. Majumdar, H.S. Kamath
Investigation of thermal-physical and mechanical properties
of uranium-gadolinium oxide fuel..................................................................................85
Yu.K Bibilashvili, A.V. Kuleshov, O.V. Milovanov, E.N. Mikheev,
V.V. Novikov, S.G. Popov, V.N. Proselkov, Yu.V. Pimenov, Yu.G. Godin
Westinghouse doped pellet technology..................................................................................101
J.-E. Lindbäck
UO , MOX AND UO -GD O PELLETS WITH ADDITIVES (Session 2)
2 2 2 3
Densification behaviour of TiO doped UO pellet...............................................................113
2 2
H.S. Yoo, S.J. Lee, J.I. Kim,J.G. Chung, K.T. Kim
Effect of sintering gas on the grain size of UO pellets
2
derived from different powder routes...........................................................................125
Keon Sik Kim, Kun Woo Song, Jae Ho Yang, Youn Ho Jung
Sintered pellets obtained for advanced fuel manufacturing...................................................133
D. Ohai, M. Roth
Effect of additives on the sintering kinetics of the UO Gd O system.................................147
2· 2 3
T.A.G. Restivo, A.E L.Cláudio, E.D. Silva, L. Pagano Jr.
Yibin Nuclear Fuel Element Plant’s experience in
manufacturing of large grain size pellet.......................................................................155
Deng Hua, Zhou Yongzhong, Yan Xuemin
FISSION GAS RELEASE FROM FUEL PELLETS UNDER HIGH BURNUP
(Session 3)
Advanced PWR fuels for high burnup extension and PCI constraint elimination.................163
Ch. Delafoy, P. Blanpain, S. Lansiart, Ph. Dehaudt, G. Chiarelli, R. Castelli
Synthesis of the results obtained on the advanced UO2 microstructures
irradiated in the tanox device........................................................................................175
S. Valin, L. Caillot,. Ph. Dehaudt, Y. Guerin, A. Mocellin,
C. Delafoy, A. Chotard
Fission gas release from high burnup UO2 fuels under simulated out-of
pile LOCA conditions...................................................................................................187
Y. Pontillon, D. Parrat, M.P. Ferroud Plattet, S. Ravel,
G. Ducros, C. Struzik, A. Harrer
EVOLUTION OF FUEL PELLET STRUCTURE AND THERMAL PROPERTIES AT
HIGH BURNUP (Session 4)
The MICROMOX project: A study about the impact of alternative
MOX fuel microstructures on FGR..............................................................................207
M. Lippens, P. Cook, P.H. Raison, R.J.M. Konings, K. Bakker, C. Hellwig
Oxide fuel — Microstructure and composition variation (OMICO).....................................213
M. Verwerft, M. Wéber, S. Lemehov, V. Sobolev, Th. Aoust,
V. Kuzminov, J. Somers, G. Toury, J. McGinley, C. Selfslags,
A. Schubert, D. Haas, Ph. Vesco, P. Blanpain
On the characterization of plutonium distribution in MIMAS MOX by image analysis.......221
G. Oudinet, I. Munoz-Viallard, M.-J. Gotta, J.M. Becker,
G. Chiarelli, R. Castelli
Modelling non-standard mixed oxide fuels with the mechanistic code MACROS:
Neutronic and heterogeneity effects.............................................................................235
S.E. Lemehov, K. Govers, M. Verwerft
PELLET CLADDING INTERACTION (PCI) (Session 5)
Impact of fuel microstructure on PCI behaviour....................................................................259
C. Nonon, S. Lansiart, C. Struzik, D. Plancq, S. Martin, G.M. Decroix,
O. Rabouille, S. Beguin, B. Julien
A procedure for analyzing the mechanical behavior of LWR fuel rod..................................279
Y.M. Kim, Y.S. Yang, C.B. Lee, Y.H. Jung
Development of low-strain resistant fuel for power reactor fuel rods ..................................297
Yu.K. Bibilashvili, F.G. Reshetnikov, V.V. Novikov, A.V. Medvedev,
O.V. Milovanov, A.V. Kuleshov, E.N. Mikheev, V.I. Kuznetsov,
V.B. Malygin, K.V. Naboichenko, A.N. Sokolov, V.I. Tokarev,
Yu.V. Pimenov
Observation of a pellet-cladding bonding layer in high power fuel.......................................307
S. van den Berghe, A. Leenaers, B. Vos, L. Sannen, M. Verwerft
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS....................................................................................................315

SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
The Technical Meeting on Improved Fuel Pellet Materials and Designs held in Brussels,
Belgium in October 2003 focused on fabrication and design tools to influence, to some extent,
and ensure desirable in-pile fuel properties. Emphasis was given to analysis of fuel
characteristics at high burnup including thermal behaviour, fission gas retention and release,
PCI (pellet-cladding interaction) and PCMI (pellet-cladding mechanical interaction). Specific
features of large grain size UO , MOX and urania-gadolinia fuels with and without additives
2
were considered in detail.
This meeting is the second IAEA meeting in this area after the first meeting held in 1996 in
Tokyo, Japan. Also, there is a co-operation, through the IAEA Technical Working Group on
Water Reactor Fuel Performance and Technology, with a series of three seminars organized
by CEA, France, and co-sponsored by the IAEA and OECD/NEA. The first seminar on
Thermal Performance of High Burnup LWR Fuel was in 1998, the second one on Fission Gas
Behaviour in Water Reactor Fuels in 2000 and the third seminar on Pellet-Cladding
Interaction — in March 2004. Altogether these five meetings create a comprehensive picture
of fuel pellet, fuel column and fuel rod behaviour at high burnup.
2. SESSION 1: OPTIMIZATION OF FUEL FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY —
PRACTICES AND MODELLING
Eight papers were presented in this session which all were devoted to fuel fabrication
technology. They mostly treated methods for optimizing fuel manufacturing processes, but
gave also a good overview on nuclear fabrication needs and capabilities in different countries.
In India, for example, fuel is to be provided for 3 different reactor types, including BWRs,
PHWRs and WWERs. According to that, an unusual big variety of fuel types and fabrication
routes has been established. In the paper contributed by NFC (Nuclear Fuel Complex in
Hyderabad), emphasis was given to the development of fuel for PHWR. A lot of efforts have
been done to improve:
(cid:120)(cid:3) pellet design;
(cid:120)(cid:3) type of fuel pellet material;
(cid:120)(cid:3) and the manufacturing processes.
The design adaptation comprises pellet density, shape and dimensions. Use of depleted
uranium in MOX fuel (for higher burnup) brought new challenge for special loading patterns
and for manufacturing. In the field of production, several new processes have been developed
and successfully transferred into commercial manufacturing.
The Nuclear Fuels Group in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India contributed a paper on
microstructure improvement for conventional and advanced U-Pu, Th-Pu and Th-U fuel.
Advanced manufacturing processes like Low Temperature Sintering and the microsphere
impregnation technique have been developed and realized for more economic fabrication. All
modern methods for tailoring fuel for high burnup targets and improved performance have
successfully been applied, including:
(cid:120)(cid:3) High grain size by microdoping;
(cid:120)(cid:3) Choice of special pore formers for optimized pore size and structure.
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