Integral LOCA experiments to study FFRD behavior of high burnup nuclear fuels

This paper introduces the Integral Loss Of Coolant (LOCA) facility (i-LOCA) established at Seoul National University. The facility was designed to investigate the integral fuel behavior of Light Water Reactors during LOCA, encompassing aspects such as cladding oxidation, ballooning and burst, reflood quenching, secondary hydriding, and fuel pellet dispersal. Integral LOCA experiments were carried out using three types of surrogate ZrO₂ pellets, representing various segment burnups: cylindrical pellets with no fuel fragmentation (<55 GWd/MTU), mixed fragments of different sizes simulating ∼68 GWd/MTU (D = 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mm with the same mass fraction), and small single powdered fragments simulating ultra-high burnup fuel (D = 0.5 mm, ∼94 GWd/MTU). Zr-Nb-Sn, Zr-1.1Nb, and Cr-coated (15 μm, Arc Ion Plating) Zr-1.1Nb ATF cladding were employed, with rod internal pressures ranging from 1 MPa to 7 MPa. The burst size and hoop strain exhibited significant variations depending on the type of surrogate pellets used, with larger burst sizes and hoop strains observed for smaller average diameters of surrogate pellets due to the effect of azimuthal and axial temperature distribution. Fuel dispersal was influenced by rod internal pressure, burst size, and the size of pellet fragments. Only pellet fragments smaller than the burst hole width underwent dispersal upon fuel burst, while larger fragments blocked the dispersal of smaller fragments. The rapidly escalating average dispersal fraction of single powder compared to mixed powder indicated a threshold burnup for fuel dispersal between 69–94 GWd/MTU. Cladding inner oxidation length was influenced by burst hole size and remaining fuel pellets. The results of inner oxidation confirmed the validity of the U.S. NRC’s assumption regarding the length of inner wall oxidation. The tested 15 μm Cr-coated cladding tubes, produced using the arc ion plating method, exhibited no significant differences in burst geometry, fuel dispersal, inner oxidation, and secondary hydriding when compared to the uncoated reference cladding.