Kurina I.S., Frolova M.Y., Chesnokov E.A.
A.I. Leypunsky Institute for Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Russia
This paper presents a review of well-known
foreign scientific publications devoted to the study of the behavior of
metallic U-Zr nuclear fuel under irradiation. Information is given on solving
important problems that arise during the irradiation of metallic fuel.
The connection
and continuity of work with U-Zr fuel with the initial work on the manufacture
and study of fuel slugs U-5 wt. % Fs (fissium) with different densities for the
experimental breeder reactor EBR-II is noted.
Particular
attention is paid to the main phenomena that occur during the reactor irradiation
of metallic fuel, such as radiation swelling of the fuel due to the
accumulation of solid and gaseous fission products; formation and heterogeneous
distribution of porosity; mechanical interaction of the fuel with the fuel
cladding; radial migration of cladding components, fuel, and fission products
(lanthanides); physical and chemical interaction of fuel with the cladding. The
study of these radiation-induced phenomena is critical to the development and
licensing process of modern metallic fuels.
It is noted that
the swelling of alloyed metallic fuel is anisotropic: the increase in the
length of the fuel slugs as the U-Zr fuel burns out is always less than the
increase in the diameter of the slugs. In this case, the increase in diameter
mainly occurs up to burnups of about 1–2 % t.a. Ensuring the initial smeared
density of the fuel in the cross section of the fuel rod is not higher than 75 %
(due to the corresponding “fuel-cladding” gap, which allows a 30% increase in
the cross-section of the fuel column during free swelling) is sufficient to
prevent contact of the fuel with the fuel rod cladding until interconnected
open porosity and the associated sharp decrease in the possibility of loading
the fuel cladding from the side of the fuel, as well as to achieve fuel burnup
of more than 10 % t.a. With such a design feature of the fuel element, the main
contribution to the loading of the cladding is made by the pressure of gaseous
fission products, which is compensated by an appropriate selection of the
volume of the gas collector.
It is noted that
the physicochemical interaction of the fuel with the fuel cladding is primarily
due to the diffusion of Fe and Ni from the steel cladding into the fuel, as
well as the diffusion of fission products (lanthanides: La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Pr,
etc.) from the fuel into the shell. In this case, the physicochemical
interaction depends on the burnup, the fuel temperature, and the temperature of
the inner surface of the cladding. A review of experimental data on the radial
distributions of irradiated fuel components and solid fission products
(lanthanides) formed during irradiation is presented.
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