Water Channel Reactor Fuels and Fuel Channels: Design, Performance, Research and Development
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XA9846745- }t( IAEA-TECDOC-997 Water channel reactor fuels and fuel channels: Design, performance, research and development Proceedings of a Technical Committee meeting held in Vienna, 16-19 December 1996 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY January 1998 fa. 2 9-20 The IAEA does not normally maintain stocks of reports in this series. However, microfiche copies of these reports can be obtained from IN IS Clearinghouse International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramerstrasse 5 P.O. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna, Austria Orders should be accompanied by prepayment of Austrian Schillings 100, in the form of a cheque or in the form of IAEA microfiche service coupons which may be ordered separately from the IN IS Clearinghouse. IAEA-TECDOC-997 Water channel reactor fuels and fuel channels: Design, performance, research and development Proceedings of a Technical Committee meeting held in Vienna, 16-19 December 1996 ffl INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY 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 WATER CHANNEL REACTOR FUELS AND FUEL CHANNELS: DESIGN, PERFORMANCE, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IAEA, VIENNA, 1998 IAEA-TECDOC-997 ISSN 1011^289 ©IAEA, 1998 Printed by the IAEA in Austria January 1998 FOREWORD The issues of BWR, PWR and WWER fuel technology and performance, and fuel thermal and mechanical designs providing sufficient safety margins under high burnup conditions have been a focus of IAEA activities during the last several years. C ANDU fuel and pressure tube performance and reliability have been also considered, especially taking into account the perspective of transfer from natural uranium to slightly enriched fuel. However, fuel and pressure tube/fuel channel performance and design aspects of other types of water cooled reactors including Atucha-I and II (Argentina), FUGEN (Japan) and RBMK (16 units in Lithuania, Russian Federation and Ukraine) have been considered to a rather lesser extent. With this in mind, the International Working Group on Water Reactor Fuel Performance and Technology (I WGFPT) recommended holding a Technical Committee Meeting on Water Channel Reactor Fuel including into this category fuels and pressure tubes / fuel channels for Atucha-I and II, BWR, CANDU, FUGEN and RBMK reactors. The IWGFPT considered that even if the characteristics of Atucha, CANDUs, BWRs, FUGEN and RBMKs differ considerably, there are also common features. These features include materials aspects, as well as core, fuel assembly and fuel rod design, and some safety issues. There is also some similarity in fuel power history and operating conditions (Atucha-I and II, FUGEN and RBMK). Experts from 11 countries participated at the meeting and presented papers on technology, performance, safety and design, and materials aspects of fuels and pressure tubes / fuel channels for the above types of water channel reactors. The IAEA wishes to thank all the participants for their contributions to this publication, which summarizes experience to date with fuel and pressure tube/fuel channel for water channel reactors, and ongoing research and development in participating countries. The IAEA officer responsible for this TECDOC was V. Onoufriev of the Division of Nuclear Power and the Fuel Cycle. EDITORIAL NOTE In preparing this publication for press, staff of the IAEA have made up the pages from the original manuscripts as submitted by the authors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the IAEA, the governments of the nominating Member States or the nominating organizations. Throughout the text names of Member States are retained as they were when the text was compiled. 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 7 WATER CHANNEL REACTOR FUEL DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE (Session I) CANDU fuel performance 19 A.M. Manzer Development of RBMK fuel assemblies. Features of design, research findings 35 V.G. Aden, Yu.M. Nikitin, E.G. Bek Fuel performance in Argentine heavy water channel reactor - pressure vessel type 53 J.A. Casario, R.O. Cirimello Transient thermal hydraulic behaviour of the fuel bundles during on-power unloading operation in the proposed 500 MWe PHWR 73 S.G. Markendeya, G. Pal, V. Venkat Raj The experience of RBMK-1000 fuel utilization in Ukraine (Chernobyl NPP) 81 A. Afanasyev, A. Novikov Modernization of the design, and optimization of the manufacturing technology of RBMK fuel rods and fuel assemblies 89 A.K. Panyushkin, V.A. Tsiboulia, E.G. Bek Fuel experience with burnable absorber fuel for RBMK-1500 95 B. Voroncov, A. Robotko, G. Krivoshein, A. Kulkov, A. Kupalov-Yaropolk, A. Markelov R&D ACTIVITIES ON WATER CHANNEL REACTOR FUELS (Session II) BWR fuel R&D programs at Studsvik 101 M. Grounes, C. Graslund, G. Lysell, A. Lassing, T. Unger, M. Carlsson Summary of the OECD Halden Reactor Project programme on high burnup fuel performance relevant for BWRs 131 A. McGrath RBMK fuel assemblies: current status and perspectives 143 A.I. Kupalov-Yaropolk, V.A. Nikolaev, Yu.M. Cherkashov, A.K. Panyushkin, A.M. Fedosov Status and development of RBMK fuel rods and reactor aterials 151 Yu.K. Bibilashvili, F.G. Reshetnikov, A.G. Ioltukhovsky, A.V. Kuznetsov, L.L. Malanchenko, A. V. Medvedev, O. V. Milovanov, A. V. Nikulina, F.F. Sokolov, V.S. Jamnikov, G.P. Kobyljansky, V.K. Shamardin Modelling of thermal-mechanical interaction of RBMK fuel pellets and claddings 167 M. Khmelevsky, E. Malakhova, V. Popov, V. Troyanov R&D ACTIVITIES ON FUEL CHANNELS (Session III) Post-irradiation examination and evaluation of Zr-2.5%Nb pressure tube of FUGEN 181 K. Takayam, RBMK fuel channel and ways to increase its lifetime 193 E. Yu. Rivkin, A.N. Semenov, V.N. Tyurin Aspects of safety assessment of RBMK-1500 fuel channels 199 K Petkevicius, G. Dundulis, J. Vilemas, E. Uspuras, A. Alejev Aspects regarding the lifetime of a fuel channel in a CANDU nuclear power plant 211 A. Calinescu LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 215 NEXT PAGE(S) left BLANK SUMMARY The International Working Group on Water Reactor Fuel Performance and Technology (IWGFPT) recommended to the IAEA to hold a Technical Committee Meeting (TCM) on Water Channel Reactor Fuel. This proposal was elaborated at 12th (May 1994) and 13th (September 1995) IWGFPT plenary meetings and discussed in detail at the consultants meeting in April 1996. It was suggested to consider both coolant channels in BWRs and PHWRs (which support only the pressure difference between inlet and outlet) and pressure tubes in CANDUs, RBMKs and FUGEN reactor as water channels due to the close thermohydraulic conditions (coolant temperature, pressure and flowrate). Pressure tube behaviour under irradiation and evaluation of their lifetime were recognized as subjects of high importance because retubing (if necessary) is a very costly and radiation hazardous operation. With respect to fuel (assemblies, rods, claddings and fuel itself) it was recommended to evaluate the impact of reload type (on-power or during outages) and coolant condition (boiling, not boiling) on fuel performance and safety margins. Subsequent analysis confirmed that, inspite of significant differences in design, burnup targets and performance requirements for the above mentioned reactor types, many common features were identified. Therefore, a comparison of fuel and pressure tube designs, performance experience and trends in technical development supported cross fertilization of ideas between countries and groupswith different reactor types. Major features of reactors which fuel and/or pressure tubes considered at the TCM are given in Table 1. Table 2 presents fuel rod and cladding operational parameters and some post-irradiation examination data (fission gas release - FGR), and Table 3 - the information on material and operational conditions of the pressure tubes. As can be seen from Table 1, CANDU, FUGEN and RBMK reactors have pressure tubes which withstand coolant pressure and serve as a pressure vessel. In BWRs and PHWRs, e.g. Atucha-1 (Argentina) and PHWR-500 (Indian design which is under development), the channels serve to distribute and adjust the coolant flow and withstand only the pressure difference between inlet and outlet. Coolant pressure is very close for all reactors considered, nevertheless coolant boiling is supressed in PHWRs. With regard to fuel utilization, it is very similar in FUGEN and RBMKs (burnups ~ 20 MWd/kg HM, enrichments ~ 2-2.5% fissile) and in CANDU and PHWRs (6-8 MWd/kg HM and natural U), while in BWRs both burnup and enrichment are significantly higher. However, there is a strong tendency for fuel utilization in all above-mentioned reactors, driven by economics, to increase fuel burnup. Fuel operate at CANDUs, FUGEN, PHWRs and RBMKs at rather high linear heat generation rates (LHGRs, Table2) that results in rather high fission gas release (FGR). Lower LHGR in combination with longer fuel residence time in BWRs could also result in high FGR. Power transients during fuel assembly reload (in CANDUs, PHWRs and RBMKs) and power transients during control rod manoeuvring (in BWRs and FUGEN) could result in high FGR and pellet-cladding interaction (PCI). Cladding water- side corrosion, especially nodular corrosion, is a serious issue for reactors with boiling coolant. Only one Zr-based alloy, namely Zr-2.5%Nb, was selected in Canada, Japan and Russia as material for the pressure tubes (Table 3).