Thermal-mechanical performance modeling of thorium-plutonium oxide fuel and comparison with on-line irradiation data
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2015

Thorium-plutonium Mixed OXide (Th-MOX) fuel is considered for use in light water reactors fuel due to some inherent benefits over conventional fuel types in terms of neutronic properties. The good material properties of ThO2 also suggest benefits in terms of thermal-mechanical fuel performance, but the use of Th-MOX fuel for commercial power production demands that its thermal-mechanical behavior can be accurately predicted using a well validated fuel performance code. Given the scant operational experience with Th-MOX fuel, no such code is available today. This article describes the first phase of the development of such a code, based on the well-established code FRAPCON 3.4, and in particular the correlations reviewed and chosen for the fuel material properties. The results of fuel temperature calculations with the code in its current state of development are shown and compared with data from a Th-MOX test irradiation campaign which is underway in the Halden research reactor. The results are good for fresh fuel, whereas experimental complications make it difficult to judge the adequacy of the code for simulations of irradiated fuel. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1964

x-ray

Processing

Nuclear fuel

conductivity

Materials Science

ikalla td

Thermal-mechanical performance

uo2-puo2 system

journal of nuclear materials

Thorium

Plutonium

expansion

FRAPCON

p131

v12

uo2

heat-capacity

dioxide

solid-solutions

Mining & Mineral

temperature

behavior

Nuclear Science & Technology

Författare

Klara L Insulander Björk

Chalmers, Teknisk fysik, Nukleär teknik

L. Kekkonen

Fortum Corporation

Institutt for energiteknikk

Journal of Nuclear Materials

0022-3115 (ISSN)

Vol. 467 876-885

Ämneskategorier

Subatomär fysik

Metallurgi och metalliska material

DOI

10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.11.001

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Senast uppdaterat

2018-09-06