Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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The SPIZWURZ project - Experimental investigations and modeling of the behavior of hydrogen in zirconium alloys under long-term dry storage conditions

  • Mirco Grosse (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Applied Materials) ;
  • Felix Boldt (Bundesgesellschaft fur Zwischenlagerung) ;
  • Michel Herm (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal) ;
  • Conrado Roessger (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Applied Materials) ;
  • Juri Stuckert (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Applied Materials) ;
  • Sarah Weick (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Applied Materials) ;
  • Daniel Nahm (Gesellschaft fur Reaktorsicherheit)
  • Received : 2023.07.24
  • Accepted : 2023.09.18
  • Published : 2024.03.25
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Abstract

In order to investigate the occurring processes during long-term dry storage of spent fuel assemblies, a joined project called SPIZWURZ, between the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Gesellschaft für Anlagen-und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS), was started. Aim of the SPIZWURZ project is the determination and quantification of the influence of texture and elastic strain on diffusion and solubility of hydrogen in three different zirconium alloys used in western Europe during a long-term cooling transient (1 K/d) starting at 400 ℃. The strain in the cladding of an irradiated spent fuel rod shall be measured. Models predicting the formation of radial oriented hydrides will be validated, improved, and implemented in the GRS fuel rod performance code TESPA-ROD. This paper describes the SPIZWURZ project and already obtained first results.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The SPIZWURZ project (FKZ RS1586A/1501609B) is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). The INCHAMEL facility was funded by the HOVER program of the Helmholtz Association. The authors highly appreciate the technical support of the KIT workshops during this study. The authors thank the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) for providing beam-time at the ICON facility and Anders Kaestner and David Mannes for their assistance during the measurements and the analysis. Further, the chemical analysis group of Thomas Bergfeldt (IAMAWP), the KIT's UENCH group and all colleagues is thanked.

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