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The Behavior or Light Water Reactor Fuel after the Cladding is Breached under Unsaturated Test Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

J. C. Cunnane ,
J. A. Fortner  and
R. J. Finch
J. C. Cunnane
Affiliation:
Chemical Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL60439
J. A. Fortner
Affiliation:
Chemical Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL60439
R. J. Finch
Affiliation:
Chemical Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL60439
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Abstract

Experiments were conducted to examine the corrosion behavior of fuel and cladding under test conditions selected to determine how fuel with breached cladding may behave under unsaturated repository conditions. The results discussed here were obtained from two test samples, each consisting of ∼3.5-in. segments of ATM103, a moderate-burnup (∼30 GWd/MtU) PWR fuel, exposed to humid air at 175°C. Visual examination of the samples after 540 days revealed that each had developed an axial crack that passed through a drilled hole in the cladding and ran the full length of the sample.

Destructive examination of the fuel and cladding showed that the cladding had experienced extensive fuel-side corrosion. Metallographic examination of the cladding shows the hydride distribution near the drilled hole, the fracture surfaces, and the fuel-side corrosion products. Electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) and electron diffraction analyses were used to characterize the corrosion products. The results indicate that the fuel-side corrosion of the cladding and the specific volume increase associated with the formation of the corrosion products caused the hoop stresses that resulted in the observed axial splitting. The implications of these results for the expected evolution of the spent fuel cladding after the cladding is initially breached in an unsaturated repository are discussed.

Type
articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 757: Symposium II – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXVI , 2002 , II9.4
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

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