Fission product metallic phases, irradiated

For this experiment, the reactor core had been equipped with a central fuel module containing 100 pre-pressurized fuel rods, the UO2 fuel of which had been enriched to 9.7% and which had been pre-irradiated to a bumup of about 450 MWd/t U. The transient phase started with the reactor scram and was terminated about 30 minutes later when the external temperatiure on the surface of the shroud of the central fuel module reached 1517 K at this time, the highest measured cladding temperature reached 2100 K. When reflooding of the reactor core with emergency coolant was started, a rapid temperature excursion occurred within the central fuel module which was caused by the enhanced metal—water reaction. The transient was followed by a post-transient period of 44 days during which the reactor core was cooled by recirculating coolant and the concentrations of fission products deposited in the primary coolant system as well as their behavior in the blowdown suppression tank were measured. 

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