Title: Prediction of peak cladding temperature in a three-loop pressurised water reactor with accident-tolerant fuel during loss-of-coolant accident

Authors: Alexander Agung

Addresses: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia

Abstract: Safety analysis of a PWR fuelled with ATF (Accident-Tolerant Fuel) has been performed at LB-LOCA condition. The ATF being used is uranium silicide (U₃Si₂) and FCMF (Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel) with silicon carbide (SiC) and FeCrAl alloy as a cladding material. The objective of this research is to obtain dynamic characteristics of ATF-fuelled PWR at LB-LOCA condition. RELAP5-3D system code was used to model the reactor and simulate the transient. A safe shutdown of the reactor was assumed after a depressurisation following a double-ended guillotine breach in the main pipe. The results of simulations show that during LB-LOCA with partially functioning ECCS, the transient PCTs were far below the maximum allowable limit. The use of ATF could decrease the maximum transient PCT. It is shown that U₃Si₂ fuel with FeCrAl cladding has the minimum PCT transient and the shortest quench time to steady state condition after transient initiation.

Keywords: nuclear safety; peak cladding temperature; accident-tolerant fuel; loss-of-coolant accident; RELAP5-3D.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2018.094287

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2018 Vol.12 No.2, pp.196 - 212

Received: 20 Jul 2017
Accepted: 18 Jun 2018
Published online: 26 Aug 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article