Fuel cladding

Del y for Dec y. Nuclear power plants generate radioactive xenon and krypton as products of the fission reactions. Although these products ate trapped inside the fuel elements, portions can leak out into the coolant (through fuel cladding defects) and can be released to the atmosphere with other gases through an air ejector at the main condenser. 

Off-Gas Treatment. Before the advent of the shear, the gases released from the spent fuel were mixed with the entire dissolver off-gas flow. Newer shear designs contain the fission gases and provide the opportunity for more efficient treatment. The gaseous fission products krypton and xenon are chemically inert and are released into the off-gas system as soon as the fuel cladding is breached. Efficient recovery of these isotopes requires capture at the point of release, before dilution with large quantities of air. Two processes have been developed, a cryogenic distillation and a Freon absorption. 

The Model 412 PWR uses several control mechanisms. The first is the control cluster, consisting of a set of 25 hafnium metal rods coimected by a spider and inserted in the vacant spaces of 53 of the fuel assembhes (see Fig. 6). The clusters can be moved up and down, or released to shut down the reactor quickly. The rods are also used to (/) provide positive reactivity for the startup of the reactor from cold conditions, (2) make adjustments in power that fit the load demand on the system, (J) help shape the core power distribution to assure favorable fuel consumption and avoid hot spots on fuel cladding, and (4) compensate for the production and consumption of the strongly neutron-absorbing fission product xenon-135. Other PWRs use an alloy of cadmium, indium, and silver, all strong neutron absorbers, as control material. 

Because of its low neutron absorption, zirconium is an attractive stmctural material and fuel cladding for nuclear power reactors, but it has low strength and highly variable corrosion behavior. However, ZircaHoy-2, with a nominal composition of 1.5 wt % tin, 0.12 wt % iron, 0.05 wt % nickel, 0.10 wt % chromium, and the remainder zirconium, can be used ia all nuclear power reactors that employ pressurized water as coolant and moderator (see... 

Properties. Most of the alloys developed to date were intended for service as fuel cladding and other stmctural components in hquid-metal-cooled fast-breeder reactors. AHoy selection was based primarily on the following criteria corrosion resistance in Hquid metals, including lithium, sodium, and NaK, and a mixture of sodium and potassium strength ductihty, including fabricabihty and neutron considerations, including low absorption of fast neutrons as well as irradiation embrittlement and dimensional-variation effects. Alloys of greatest interest include V 80, Cr 15, Ti 5... 

Hafnium-free zirconium is particularly weU-suited for these appHcations because of its ductiHty, excellent oxidation resistance in pure water at 300°C, low thermal neutron absorption, and low susceptibiHty to radiation. Nuclear fuel cladding and reactor core stmctural components are the principal uses for zirconium metal. 

Fuel clad - If the fission products e.scape the matrix, they are. sealed in a zircalloy or stainless steel (the cladding). 

A first attempt to estimate the potential consequences from severe LWRs accidents was the BNL report WASH-740 (1957). The authors of WASH-740, to overcome the lack of information and methods, estimated "Hazard States based on the core state, radioactive inventory, fuel cladding, reactor coolant system, and containment conditions. 

It is important to note safety differences between the SRS reactors and LWRs. Since the SRS reactors are not for power production they operate at a maximum temperature of 90° C and about 200 psi pressure. Thus, there are no concerns with steam blowdown, turbine trip, or other scenarios related to the high temperature and pressure aspects of an LWR. On the of nd, uranium-aluminum alloy fuel clad with aluminum for the SRS reactors melts at a m ver... 

To slow down and control the rate of reaction, a moderator is also required. Typically, the moderator is boric acid, graphite, or heavy water (D20) and is present in the high-purity water, which also serves as a primary coolant for the fuel and the reactor vessel. The tremendous heat generated by nuclear fission is transferred to this closed-loop coolant, which is contained within a reactor primary-coolant circulation system. The high-purity water coolant also contains a suitable pH buffer such as lithium hydroxide, which has the additional effect of limiting the corrosion of fuel-cladding and other components. 

I0.6.8.I Cladding failure in oxide fuel pins of nuclear reactors. The long-term operational performance of nuclear fuel pins is critically governed by the reactions that occur in the gap between the fuel and its cladding. Ball et al. (1989) examined this for the cases of (1) Zircaloy-clad pellets of U02+, in a pressurised water reactor (PWR) and (2) stainless-steel-clad pellets of (U, P)02+, in a liquid-metal-cooled fast-breeder reactor (LMFBR). In particular they were interested in the influence of O potential on Cs, I, Te and Mo and the effects of irradiation on the gaseous species within the fuel-clad gaps. 

The work on hi level waste solidification has led to applications of the same materials to other areas of waste management. These include decontamination of defense wastes currently in tank storage at Richland, WA, selective separation of Cs for beneficial uses, and development of a process flowsheet for conversion of Zircaloy fuel cladding hulls to sodium zirconate for use in waste stabilization. Each is briefly described below. 

Fission products can be released from defects in the fuel rods or from tramp uranium on the fuel cladding. Of special importance are the volatile fission products 131—i35j M7>i38Xe in BWR steam). Cations include the Sr and Cs isotopes,... 

The reactions of UO2 in aqueous solutions are of importance to the long-term storage of fission reactor spent-fuel. In particular, the leaching and dissolution mechanisms of UO2 in water will determine nuclide release rates in cases where fuel cladding fails (410. In order to determine the reactivity of UO2, a number of studies have been done including XPS work by McIntyre et al (1 4). Part of the objective of their work was to determine the variations in surface oxidation state of UO2 upon exposure to aqueous solution in an effort to understand how the reactivity of UC>2 would change. 

Fuel and Cladding Fabrication — Uranium precipitation in mixed fuels — Acid cleaning of fuel cladding... 

This is a batch process that is made complex by the fuel cladding and radioactivity. A typical fuel assembly for a PWR contains about 250, 0.37-inch zirconium-clad rods 12-feet long containing in total about 1200 lb of U02. The assembled rods are mechanically sheared into 1- to 2-inch lengths and dropped into a perforated basket. This is placed in the dissolver tank where the uranium oxide is dissolved as discussed above. The basket then is removed from the dissolver, and the zirconium hulls and associated hardware therein are dumped into containers, compressed, sealed, and sent to transuranic waste storage. Ultimately, they will go to a disposal facility. 

As anticipated, there have been occasional equipment failures involving reactors, but the safety systems have been sufficiently redundant so that one or more have always worked. Even in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the safety systems worked as designed. Much of the damage resulted from operator actions to override the safety systems. As concluded in the Reactor Safety Report, the limitations of the operator created and then seriously aggravated the Three Mile Island incident. Nevertheless, the features of the containment system prevented significant exposure to the plant personnel or any off-site individual, this despite failure of the barriers provided by the fuel cladding and the primary coolant system. 

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