• Title/Summary/Keyword: irradiated fuel

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EPMA Analysis of Inter-reaction Layer in Irradiated U3Si-Al Fuels (EPMA를 이용한 U3Si/Al 조사 핵연료의 반응층 분석)

  • Jung, Yang-Hong;Yoo, Byung-Ok;Kim, Hee-Moon;Park, Jong-Man;Kim, Myung-Han
    • Analytical Science and Technology
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.355-362
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    • 2004
  • Fission products and Inter reaction layer of $U_3Si-Al$ dispersion fuel, irradiated in HANARO research reactor with 121 kW/m of maximum liner power and 63 at% of average burn-up, was characterization by EPMA (Electron Probe Micro Analyzer). The fuel punching system developed by Irradiated Materials Examination Facility (IMEF) has used to make these samples for the EPMA. With this system a very small and thin specimen which is 1.57 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness respectively has been fabricated to protect the EPMA operator from high radioactive fuel and to mini-mize the equivalent dose rate less than 150 mSv/h. EPMA was performed to observe layers of sectional, Inter-reaction and oxide with specimens of cutting and polished. Stoichiometry in the Inter-reaction layer with $16{\mu}m$ of thickness was $U_{2.84}$ Si $Al_{14}$ with calibration of $UO_2$ and $U_{3.24}$ Si $Al_{14.1}$ with calibration of standard specimen. metallic precipitates in this layer were not observed using fission products examination.

Thermal creep effects of aluminum alloy cladding on the irradiation-induced mechanical behavior in U-10Mo/Al monolithic fuel plates

  • Jian, Xiaobin;Ding, Shurong
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.52 no.4
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    • pp.802-810
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    • 2020
  • Three-dimensional finite element simulations are implemented for the in-pile thermo-mechanical behavior in U-Mo/Al monolithic fuel plates with different thermal creep rates of cladding involved. The numerical results indicate that the thickness increment of fuel foil rises with the thermal creep coefficient of cladding. The maximum Mises stress of cladding is reduced by ~85% from 344 MPa on the 98.0th day when the creep coefficient of cladding increases from 0.01 to 10.0, due to its equivalent thermal creep strain enlarged by 3.5 times. When the thermal creep coefficient of Aluminum cladding increases from 0 to 1.0, the maximum mesoscale stress of fuel foil varies slightly. At the same time, the peak mesoscale normal stress of fuel foil can reach 51 MPa on the 98.0th day for the thermal creep coefficient of 10, which increases by 60.3% of that with the thermal creep un-occurred in the cladding. The maximum through-thickness creep strain components of fuel foil differ slightly for different thermal creep coefficients of cladding. The dangerous region of fuel foil becomes much closer to the heavily irradiated side when the creep coefficient of cladding becomes 10.0. The creep performance of Aluminum cladding should be optimized for the integrity of monolithic fuel plates.

Development of Automatic Nuclear Fuel Rod Character Recognition System Based on Image Processing Technique (영상처리기술을 이용한 핵 연료봉 문자 자동인식시스템 개발)

  • Woong Ki Kim;Yong Bum Lee;Jong Min Lee;Sung IL Chien
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.424-429
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    • 1993
  • Numeric characters are printed at the end part of nuclear fuel rod containing nuclear pellets. Fuel rods are discriminated and managed systematically by these characters in the process of producing fuel assembly. The characters are also used to examine manufacturing process of fuel rods in the survey of burnup efficiency as well as in inspection of irradiated fuel rod. Therefore automatic character recognition is one of the most important technologies in automatic manufacture of fuel assembly. In this study, character recognition system is developed. In the developed system, mesh feature extracted from each character written in the fuel rod has been compared with reference feature value stored in database, and the character is thus identified. In the result of experiment, 95.83 percent recognition rate is achievable.

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Development of Disassembly Tool for Intermediate Examination of Nuclear Fuel Rods (핵연료봉 중간검사를 위한 장탈착 툴 개발)

  • Hong, Jintae;Heo, Sung-Ho;Kim, Ka-Hye;Park, Sung-Jae;Joung, Chang-Young
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.443-449
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    • 2014
  • To check the characteristics of nuclear fuels during an irradiation test, the nuclear fuel rod needs to be disassembled from the test rig located in the pool of the research reactor. Then, the disassembled fuel rod is delivered to the hot cell for intermediate examination. A fuel rod that passes the intermediate examination is delivered to the reactor pool to be reassembled into the test rig. The irradiation test is resumed with the reassembled test rig. Because nuclear fuel rods irradiated by neutrons are highly radioactive, all the disassembly and reassembly processes should be carried out in the pool of the research reactor to prevent operators being exposed to radiation. In particular, because a test rig is 5.4-m long and the reactor pool of HANARO is 6-m deep, special tools need to be developed for performing the disassembly and reassembly processes. In this study, a new assembly design of nuclear fuel rods for intermediate examination is introduced. Furthermore, tools for treating the irradiated fuel rod assembly are introduced, and their performance is verified by an out pile test.

The SPIZWURZ project - Experimental investigations and modeling of the behavior of hydrogen in zirconium alloys under long-term dry storage conditions

  • Mirco Grosse;Felix Boldt;Michel Herm;Conrado Roessger;Juri Stuckert;Sarah Weick;Daniel Nahm
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.3
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    • pp.824-831
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    • 2024
  • 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.