State-of-the-Art Report on Light Water Reactor Accident-Tolerant Fuels

372 Pages·2018·13.57 MB·English

by  coll.

Nuclear Science
2018
S
tate-of-the-Art Report
on Light Water Reactor
Accident-Tolerant Fuels

Nuclear Science
State-of-the-Art Report on Light Water
Reactor Accident-Tolerant Fuels

© OECD 2018
NEA No. 7317
NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
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The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Korea, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the
United States. The European Commission takes part in the work of the OECD.
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research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and
standards agreed by its members.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.
The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official
views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries.
NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1 February 1958. Current NEA
membership consists of 33 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Korea, Romania, Russia, the Slovak
Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency also take part in the work of
the Agency.
The mission of the NEA is:
– to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international
co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally
sound and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes;
– to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues as
input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD analyses in
areas such as energy and the sustainable development of low-carbon economies.
Specific areas of competence of the NEA include the safety and regulation of nuclear activities,
radioactive waste management and decommissioning, radiological protection, nuclear science,
economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public
information. The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for
participating countries.

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© OECD 2018
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Cover photos: Top view of the TREAT core (INL); Segment of SiC/SiC fuel cladding (Sauder, 2014).
FOREWORD
Foreword
As part of a broader spectrum of collaborative activities underpinning nuclear materials
research – from modelling and simulation, including advanced multiscale and multi-
physics methods, to the development of databases for current and advanced nuclear
fuels – the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is supporting efforts towards the development of
advanced materials, including fuels for partitioning and transmutation purposes and
accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). ATFs cover a broad range of materials potentially
envisaged for the core of generation II light water reactors (LWRs) currently in operation,
as well as for generation III reactors under construction. ATFs usually imply, for example,
materials for the fuel sub-assembly (fuel, cladding, boiling water reactor [BWR] channel
box) and for control rods devices. Although R&D on some ATF candidate materials had
begun before the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), the
international debate that followed this tragic event identified the development of
advanced fuel designs with a substantially enhanced performance under severe
accidents as a focal point of progress in the safety of light water reactors. As a result, the
expansion of national and international R&D programmes on ATFs began to gather
momentum in 2011.
In order to underpin and complement national R&D efforts devoted to ATFs, the NEA
Nuclear Science Committee organised two international workshops on ATFs in 2012 and
2013, and subsequently established an expert group in 2014 – the NEA Expert Group on
Accident-tolerant Fuels for Light Water Reactors (EGATFL) – under the auspices of the
NEA Nuclear Science Committee. This expert group acts primarily as a forum for
scientific and technical information exchange on advanced LWR fuels with enhanced
accident tolerance. Following the two international workshops, the expert group defined
a collaborative programme of work to help advance the scientific knowledge needed to
provide the technical groundwork essential for the development of advanced LWR fuels
with enhanced accident tolerance, as well as other non-fuel core components with
important roles in LWR performance under accident conditions. This state-of-the-art
report, authored by 38 experts from 35 organisations, representing 15 NEA member
countries, is the result of this collaborative endeavour.

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STATE-OF-THE-ART REPORT ON LIGHT WATER REACTER ACCIDENT-TOLERANT FUELS, NEA No. 7317, © OECD 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
The NEA wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Dr Kemal Pasamehmetoglu (United
States), Chair of the NEA Expert Group on Accident-tolerant Fuels for Light Water Reactors
(EGATFL), Dr Shannon Bragg-Sitton (United States), Chair of the Task Force on Systems
Assessment, Dr Marie Moatti (France), Chair of the Task Force on Cladding and Core
Materials, and Dr Masaki Kurata (Japan), Chair of the Task Force on Advanced Fuels Designs,
for supervising this report. The NEA would like to acknowledge Dr Daniel Iracane, NEA
Deputy Director-General and Chief Nuclear Officer, and Dr Tatiana Ivanova, Head of the
Division of Nuclear Science, for their useful input. Dr Simone Massara, EGATFL Secretary
from 2014 to 2017, and Dr Davide Costa, EGATFL Secretary from 2017, provided valuable
support in co-ordinating this report.
The NEA Secretariat is very grateful to the following authors for having contributed to
the report:
J. Bischoff AREVA, France
J. C. Brachet CEA, France
S. M. Bragg-Sitton Idaho National Laboratory, United States
J.-P. Chauvin CEA, France
B. Cheng EPRI, United States
E. Coulon-Picard CEA, France
C. Cozzo PSI, Switzerland
A. Csontos EPRI, United States
C. Delafoy AREVA, France
E. J. Dolley GE, United States
T. Forgeron CEA, France
W. P. Gassmann Exelon Nuclear, United States
C. Gonnier CEA, France
R. Hania NRG, Netherlands
B. Heuser University of Illinois, United States
K. Kakiuchi Toshiba, Japan
Y. Katoh ORNL, United States
H. G. Kim KAERI, Korea
W. J. Kim KAERI, Korea
A. Kohyama Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan
Y.-H. Koo KAERI, Korea
M. Kurata JAEA, Japan
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STATE-OF-THE-ART REPORT ON LIGHT WATER REACTER ACCIDENT-TOLERANT FUELS, NEA No. 7317, © OECD 2018
ACKKNOWLEDGEMENTS
E. Lahoda Westinghouse, United States
R. Li CGN, China
S. Linhart Alvel, Czech Republic
T. Liu CGN, China
C. Lorrette CEA, France
M. Moatti EDF, France
H. Ohta CRIEPI, Japan
K. Pasamehmetoglu INL, United States
M. Petit IRSN, France
M. Pouchon PSI, Switzerland
E. Pouillier EDF, France
M. Puide Westinghouse, Sweden
R. B. Rebak GE, United States
R. Řeháček Alvel, Czech Republic
K. Sakamoto NNFD, Japan
A. Savchenko VNIINM, Russia
M. Ševeček Alvel/Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
A. Sowder EPRI, United States
M. Steinbrueck KIT, Germany
C. Tang KIT, Germany
K. Terrani ORNL, United States
C. Topbasi EPRI, United States
J. Tulenko University of Florida, United States
R. Van Nieuwenhove IFE, Norway
E. Vernon National Nuclear Laboratory, United Kingdom
M. Verwerft SCK•CEN, Belgium
N. Waeckel EDF, France
J. Wright Westinghouse, Sweden
P. Xu Westinghouse, United States
J.H. Yang KAERI, Korea
K. Yueh EPRI, United States
W. Zhou CGN, China
Y. Zvonarev Kurchatov Institute, Russia

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STATE-OF-THE-ART REPORT ON LIGHT WATER REACTER ACCIDENT-TOLERANT FUELS , NEA No. 7317, © OECD 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents
Executive summary ......................................................................................................................25
Part I: Evaluation metrics and illustrative scenarios ..............................................................29
1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................31
References ...................................................................................................................................32
2. ATF design constraints and desired attributes ...................................................................33
Fuel coping time .........................................................................................................................34
3. Definition of evaluation metrics and related testing .........................................................37
Cladding materials .....................................................................................................................37
Fuel materials .............................................................................................................................46
Considerations for the fuel cladding system .........................................................................51
References ...................................................................................................................................53
4. Application of evaluation metrics/paths forward ...............................................................55
References ...................................................................................................................................55
5. Technology readiness levels ...................................................................................................57
Definition of TRLs relative to nuclear fuel .............................................................................57
Assignment of TRL definitions.................................................................................................58
TRL summary .............................................................................................................................60
References ...................................................................................................................................61
6. Definition of illustrative scenarios for evaluation ..............................................................63
High-pressure scenario: Station blackout ..............................................................................64
Low-pressure scenario: Large-break loss-of-coolant accident ............................................65
References ...................................................................................................................................66
7. Applicable multi-physics codes for fuel performance evaluation
and system impact ...................................................................................................................67
Standard screening analyses for ATF concepts .....................................................................67
Advanced fuel performance modelling tools ........................................................................70
Analysis of severe accident behaviour ...................................................................................74
Vendor evaluation of ATF concepts ........................................................................................80
References ...................................................................................................................................84
8. Irradiation facilities for in-pile testing of ATF materials ...................................................87
Advanced test reactor (ATR) (INL, United States) ..................................................................87
Transient reactor test facility (TREAT) (INL, United States) ................................................90
High-flux isotope reactor (HFIR) (ORNL, United States) .......................................................91
BR-2 Materials test reactor (Belgium) ......................................................................................94
Halden Reactor Project (Norway) .............................................................................................95
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cabri (France) ..............................................................................................................................96
Jules Horowitz (France) ...........................................................................................................100
Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR, Japan) ..................................................................103
HANARO (Korea) ......................................................................................................................104
HFR materials test reactor (the Netherlands) ......................................................................106
LVR-15 research reactor (Czech Republic) ............................................................................107
The China Mianyang research reactor (CMRR, China) .......................................................109
References .................................................................................................................................110
Part II: Cladding and core materials ........................................................................................111
9. Introduction .............................................................................................................................113
Reference ...................................................................................................................................114
10. Coated and improved Zr-alloys ..........................................................................................115
Review of the various coating and surface modification concepts ..................................116
Fabrication/manoeuvrability ..................................................................................................118
Normal operation and AOOs ..................................................................................................119
Design-basis accidents and design extension conditions .................................................125
Back end: Used fuel storage/transport/disposal/reprocessing ..........................................131
References .................................................................................................................................133
11. Advanced steels: FeCrAl ......................................................................................................135
Primary validation ...................................................................................................................137
Fabrication ................................................................................................................................141
Normal operation and AOOs ..................................................................................................141
Design-basis accidents ............................................................................................................147
Design extension conditions ..................................................................................................148
Used fuel storage, transport, disposal (include commentary on potential
for reprocessing) ......................................................................................................................151
References .................................................................................................................................152
12. Refractory metals: Lined Mo-alloy cladding ....................................................................155
Fabrication/manoeuvrability ..................................................................................................155
Normal operation and AOOs ..................................................................................................162
Design-basis accidents and design extension conditions .................................................165
Back end: Used fuel disposal ..................................................................................................166
Summary ...................................................................................................................................166
References .................................................................................................................................167
13. SiC/SiC-composite cladding ................................................................................................169
Fabrication/manoeuvrability ..................................................................................................170
Normal operation and AOOs ..................................................................................................171
Design-basis accidents and design extension conditions .................................................174
Used fuel storage/transport/disposal/reprocessing ............................................................176
References .................................................................................................................................176
14. Non-fuel components ..........................................................................................................179
Accident-tolerant control rods ...............................................................................................179
SiC-composite for BWR channel box ....................................................................................186
References .................................................................................................................................191

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STATE-OF-THE-ART REPORT ON LIGHT WATER REACTER ACCIDENT-TOLERANT FUELS , NEA No. 7317, © OECD 2018