Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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FAST irradiations and initial post irradiation examinations - Part I

  • G. Beausoleil (Idaho National Laboratory) ;
  • L. Capriotti (Idaho National Laboratory) ;
  • B. Curnutt (Idaho National Laboratory) ;
  • R. Fielding (Idaho National Laboratory) ;
  • S. Hayes (Idaho National Laboratory) ;
  • D. Wachs (Idaho National Laboratory)
  • Received : 2022.03.04
  • Accepted : 2022.07.14
  • Published : 2022.11.25
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Abstract

The Advanced Fuels Campaign Fission Accelerated Steady-state Test (FAST) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) completed its first irradiation cycle within the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). The test focused on the irradiation of alloy fuel forms for use in sodium fast reactors. The first cycle of FAST testing was completed and four rodlets were removed for the initial post irradiation examination (PIE). The rodlet design and irradiation conditions were evaluated using Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) for as-run power history and COMSOL for temperature analysis. These rodlets include a set of low burnups (~2.5 % fissions per initial metal atoms [%FIMA]), control rodlets, and a helium-bonded annular rodlet (4.7 %FIMA). Nondestructive PIE has been completed and includes visual inspection, neutron radiography and gamma scanning of the FAST capsules and rodlets. Radiography confirmed the integrity of the experiments, revealed that the annulus in the annular fuel was filled at a modest burnup (4.7 %FIMA), and indicated potential slumping of the cooler rodlets at lower burnup. Precision gamma scanning indicated mostly usual fission product behavior, except for cesium in the He-bonded annular fuel. Future destructive PIE will be necessary to fully interpret the effects of accelerated irradiation on U-Zr metallic fuel behavior.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This manuscript has been authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The authors express sincere gratitude to Doug Porter, Andrea Jokisaari, and Alexandria Madden for peer review and editing support. The authors express sincere gratitude to Gary Povirk, Christopher Murdock, Ian Chestnut, HFEF operators, Nate Oldham, and many others for their continued support and input to the FAST project.

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