Effect of Kinetic Parameters on I-129 Activity from Fuel to Coolant in PWRs

Abstract

Effect of kinetic model parameters on fission product (I-129) activity from fuel to coolant in PWRs has been studied in this work. First a computational model was developed for fission product release into primary coolant using ORIGEN-2 as subroutine. The model is based on set of differential equations of kinetic model which includes fuel-to-gap release model, gap-to-coolant leakage model, and Booths diffusion model. A Matlab based computer program FPAPC (Fission Product Activity in Primary Coolant) was developed. Variations of I-129 activity in Primary Heat Transport System were computed and computed values of i-129 were found in good agreement and deviations were within 2% - 3% of already published data values. Finally, the effects of coolant purification rate, diffusion constant and gas escape rate on I-129 activity were studied and results indicated that the coolant purification rate is the most sensitive parameter for fission product activity in primary circuit. For changes of 5% in steps from −10% to +10% in the coolant purification rate constant (Β), the activity variation after 200 days of reactor operation was 23.1% for the change.