Canadian experience in irradiation and testing of MOX fuel

Autor: M.R. Floyd, S. Yatabe, F. Dimayuga
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Nuclear Materials. 502:177-190
ISSN: 0022-3115
DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.02.015
Popis: Experimental irradiation and performance testing of Mixed OXide (MOX) fuel at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has taken place for more than 40 years. These experiments investigated MOX fuel behaviour and compared it with UO2 behaviour to develop and verify fuel performance models. This article compares the performance of MOX of various concentrations and homogeneities, under different irradiation conditions. These results can be applied to future fuel designs. MOX fuel irradiated by CNL was found to be comparable in performance to similarly designed and operated UO2 fuel. MOX differs in behaviour from UO2 fuel in several ways. Fission-gas release, grain growth and the thickness of zirconium oxide on the inner sheath appear to be related to MOX fuel homogeneity. Columnar grains formed at the pellet centre begin to develop at lower powers in MOX than in UO2 fuel.
Databáze: OpenAIRE