Methodology for Estimating the Number of Failed Fuel Rods in Operating PWRs Using Diffusion and Kinetic Models

A methodology for estimating the number of failed fuel rods bused on the primary coolant activity in operating PWRs has been developed. This method deals with both the diffusion and the kinetic models. In case of small or medium cladding failures, the diffusion model which can consider different sizes of failure is used, whereas for large cladding failures the kinetic model is used. From the kinetic model, the release-to-birth rate ratio (R/B) is represented as a linear function of the number of failed fuel rods. This has been done by expressing the escape rate coefficient in terms of the slope of log(R/B) versus $log\;{\lambda}$. The present method has been applied to the cases of 26 cycles of several nuclear power plants for which ultrasonic testings were performed. The results show that the present method gives better predictions than the existing computer codes such as IODYNE and CADE.