© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Update on OECD/NEA Activities for

Reactor Fuel Performance and Related

Activities

Akifumi YAMAJI

OECD/NEA Data Bank

Presentation to TWG-FPT

24-25 April 2014, IAEA, Vienna

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Overview: NEA Activities on Reactor Fuels

• Under the Nuclear Science Committee:

– WPRS / EG on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP)

– WPFC / EG on Innovative Fuels (EGIF)

– WPMM / EG on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels (M2F)

– EG on Increased Accident Tolerance of Fuels for LWRs

(NEW: Being proposed)

• Under the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations

(CSNI):

– Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS)

• Under the Data Bank:

– International Fuel Performance Experiments (IFPE)

database

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

IFPE History and Overview • IFPE: International Fuel Performance Experiment database

• IAEA/FUMEX Programmes (1993-2012)

• OECD/NEA Taskforce setup 1993

• OECD/NEA Report, prepared by J. A. Turnbull (1995)

• Creation of IFPE with data from Halden + Studsvik and Risø

(1995)

– The public domain database

– Thermal reactor fuel performance, principally for Zry + UO2

– Addition of advanced products with fuel and clad variants

is not ruled out

– Today, about 1452 rods/samples from various sources

encompassing BWR, CAGR, PHWR, PWR, and VVER

IFPE webpage http://www.oecd-nea.org/science/wprs/fuel/ifpelst.html 3

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The Turnbull Report (1995)

Need for data in the following topic areas considered:

• Radial Flux Depression

• Thermal Performance

• Fuel Densification and Swelling

• UO2 Grain Growth

• Fission Product Release

• Clad Properties

• Pellet Clad Mechanical Interaction (PCMI)

• Integral Behaviour • High Burnup Effects

Creation of IFPE database 4

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance

(EGRFP) • Created in 2011 under the guidance of the NSC Working

Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS)

• Chair: G. Rossiter (NNL)

• Secretariat: A. Yamaji (NEA)

Objectives

• To provide expert advice on the development needs (data

and methods, validation experiments, scenario studies) for

existing and future fuel designs

• To provide specific technical information regarding:

– National / international programmes, experimental capabilities

– The provision of experimental data for model development and

validation from the IFPE Database

– Methods for code verification 5

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP Key Activities

• Report on “Experimental Data Requirements for Fuel

Performance Modelling” (2014/2015)

• IFPE database development

– “Front-end” interface to be prepared to enhance

accessibilities to the database (NEW)

– Keep coordination with IAEA/FUMAC New

experimental data for IFPE

• Benchmark on PCMI with Halden experimental data (NEW)

– Complementary to other benchmarks (e.g., IAEA / FUMAC,

OECD/NEA RIA Fuel Codes Benchmark)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP Contribution to LWR Uncertainty Analysis

Benchmarks WPRS

Expert Group

on Reactor

Fuel

Performance

(EGRFP)

Expert Group on

Reactor Physics

and Advanced

Nuclear Systems

(EGRPANS)

Expert Group on

Radiation

Transport and

Shielding

(EGRTS)

Expert Group on

Uncertainty

Analysis in

Modelling

(EGUAM)

IFPE

database

International

Reactor Physics

Experiments

(IRPhE) database

International

Radiation Shielding

Experiments

database (SINBAD*)

* SINBAD is developed in cooperation with RSICC

• UAM-LWR Benchmark, Exercise II-1 – Fuel Modelling: Fuel thermal properties relevant to steady-state and transient performance

U-4 (uncertainties in fuel temperature – Doppler feedback)

IFA-429,

IFA-432

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP: Meetings

• Third Expert Group meeting (Feb. 2013, NEA, Paris)

– attended by 27 experts from 12 countries (Belgium,

Czech Rep, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,

Poland, Russia, Spain, UK, USA) and 3 international

organisations (EC/ITU, IAEA, OECD/Halden).

• Next meeting: February 2015 at NEA (Paris) in conjunction

with WPRS meeting (date to be determined)

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Contact: wprs@oecd-nea.org

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF)

• Under the guidance of the NSC Working Party on

Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC)

• Chair: N. Chauvin (CEA, France)

• Secretariat: S. Cornet (NEA)

Objectives &Scope

- Technical issues associated with the development of innovative

fuels and clad materials for use in advanced fuel cycles.

- Fuel of interest: homogeneous and heterogeneous minor actinide

(MA) bearing fuels in different form (oxide, nitride, metal, carbide,

etc)

- Covers technical issues related to: fabrication techniques, irradiation

performance, post irradiation examinations, predictive models/codes

for fabrication and performance

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGIF Activities

• State-of-the-art Report on Innovative Fuels

– Study of MA containing fuels for advanced nuclear systems.

– Conclusions: Transuranics bearing fuels are being developed

at lab. scale and irradiation test have been limited to small

samples. Most advanced are metal and oxide fuels (publication

coming soon).

• Benchmark Study on Fuel Performance Codes and

Experiments

– Focus on experiments on MA bearing fuels with different

chemical forms.

– First stage: MA oxide and metal fuels (low content: 5% or less).

– Results to be gathered into a database.IFPE?

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Multi-scale Modelling of

Fuels (M2F)

• Under the guidance of the NSC Working Party on Multi-

scale Modelling of Fuels and Structural Materials for Nuclear

Systems (WPMM)

• Co-chairs:T. M. Besmann (ORNL, USA), C. Valot (CEA,

France)

• Secretariat: S. Massara (NEA)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

M2F Objectives & Scope: Establishing the state-of-the-art of the application of multi-scale modelling methods for nuclear fuels, with the aim of better understanding the fuel behaviour at atomistic and macroscopic scale. State-of-the-art Report

• Part I: state of the art and challenges of their modeling

• Part II: Methodologies for Developing and Assessing Material Properties

• Part III: Modeling and computational principles, specificities regarding

fuel

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Draft completed.

Under review.

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS)

• Under the guidance of Committee on the Safety of Nuclea

Installations (CSNI)

• Chair: M. Petit (IRSN)

• Vice-Chair: W. Wiesenack (HRP)

• Secretariat: M. Kissane (NEA)

• Activities of the WGFS cover the following topics:

– Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCA): Assessment of fuel fragmentation,

relocation and dispersal (NEW)

– Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA): Benchmark phase 2 (NEW)

– Fuel Safety Criteria

– Leaking fuel impacts and practices

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

NSC Expert Group on Increased Accident

Tolerance of Fuels for LWRs (EGATFL): NEW

• Initiative since 2011, discussed at NSC, held 2 workshops

(2012, 2013)

• Focus: Sharing the technical basis of the R&D on the

materials for the core (fuel, cladding, control rods,…) that

would be explored as candidates for the ATF technology

• Start-up meeting: 28-29 April 2014, at NEA will aim at:

– Establishing a detailed mandate

– Define the structure of this EG

– Specify the programme of work

– Define the membership and electing Chair and co-Chair

• To be proposed to NSC in June 2014

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Thank you for your attention. Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems

WPRS website:

http://www.oecd-nea.org/science/wprs/index.html

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