© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Update on OECD/NEA Activities for

Reactor Fuel Performance and Related

Activities

Akifumi YAMAJI

OECD/NEA Data Bank

Presentation to TWG-FPT

April 2013, IAEA headquarters, Vienna

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Overview

• Overview of NEA Activities on Reactor Fuels

• Works on Reactor Fuel Performance

– Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP)

– International Fuel Performance Experiments (IFPE)

database

• Other Related Activities

– Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF)

– Expert Group on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels (M2F)

– Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS)

– OECD Workshop on Accident Tolerant Fuel (Dec. 2012)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP)

NEA Activities on Reactor Fuels

Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS)

International Fuel Performance Experiments (IFPE) database

Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF)

Expert Group on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels (M2F)

IAEA/FUMEX

HRP

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance

(EGRFP) • Created in 2011 under the guidance of the NSC Working

Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS)

• Chair: L. J. Ott (ORNL)

• Secretary: A. Yamaji (NEA)

Objectives

• To provide expert advice on the development needs (data

and methods, validation experiments, scenario studies) for

existing and future fuel designs

• To provide specific technical information regarding:

– National / international programmes, experimental capabilities

– The provision of experimental data for model development and

validation from the IFPE Database

– Methods for code verification 4

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP: Key Activities & Deliverables

(Revised 2013-2015) • Identification and preservation of appropriate experimental

data (currently focusing on LWR fuels)

– State of the art report “Experimental Data Requirements

for Fuel Performance Modelling” (in draft)

• Review & development of IFPE database

• Update to “Turnbull report” (Review of Nuclear Fuel Experimental Data, 1995)

– Collaborations with IAEA/FUMEX programmes and post-

FUMEX programmes

– Power/temperature benchmark being initiated using

Halden Reactor data (supported by J. C. Killeen)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP Contribution to LWR Uncertainty Analysis

Benchmarks WPRS

Expert Group

on Reactor

Fuel

Performance

(EGRFP)

Expert Group on

Reactor Physics

and Advanced

Nuclear Systems

(EGRPANS)

Expert Group on

Radiation

Transport and

Shielding

(EGRTS)

Expert Group on

Uncertainty

Analysis in

Modelling

(EGUAM)

IFPE

database

International

Reactor Physics

Experiments

(IRPhE) database

International

Radiation Shielding

Experiments

database (SINBAD*)

* SINBAD is developed in cooperation with RSICC

• UAM-LWR Benchmark, Exercise II-1 – Fuel Modelling: Fuel thermal properties relevant to steady-state and transient performance

U-4 (uncertainties in fuel temperature – Doppler feedback)

IFA-429,

IFA-432

© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGRFP: Meetings

• Third Expert Group meeting (Feb. 2013, NEA, Paris)

– attended by 15 experts from 8 countries (Belgium,

Czech Rep, France, Poland, Japan, Russia, UK, USA)

and 4 international organisations (EC/ITU, IAEA,

OECD/Halden, WNA).

• Next meeting: February 2014 at NEA (Paris) in conjunction

with WPRS meeting (date to be determined)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF)

• Under the guidance of the NSC Working Party on

Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC)

• Chair: N. Chauvin (CEA, France)

• Secretary: S. Cornet (NEA)

Objectives &Scope

- Technical issues associated with the development of innovative

fuels and clad materials for use in advanced fuel cycles.

- Fuel of interest: homogeneous and heterogeneous minor actinide

(MA) bearing fuels in different form (oxide, nitride, metal, carbide,

etc)

- Covers technical issues related to: fabrication techniques, irradiation

performance, post irradiation examinations, predictive models/codes

for fabrication and performance

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

EGIF activities and deliverables

• Activities

- Compile an experimental database

- Qualify methodologies

- Perform code-to-code, code-to-experiment benchmark studies

- Generate status reports on various fuel technologies

- Benchmark on fuel performance and fabrication codes, experimental

benchmark and phenomenological tests to compare characterisation

and PIE techniques and results

• Deliverables

- State of the art report on Innovative Fuels

- Benchmark on fuel performance codes and experiments for MA

bearing fuels (ATR, Phenix, HFR, Halden, etc )

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Expert Group on Multi-scale Modelling of

Fuels (M2F)

• Under the guidance of the NSC Working Party on Multi-

scale Modelling of Fuels and Structural Materials for Nuclear

Systems (WPMM)

• Co-chairs:T. M. Besmann (ORNL, USA), C. Valot (CEA,

France)

• Secretary: S. Massara (NEA)

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

M2F Objectives & Scope: Establishing the state-of-the-art of the application of multi-scale modelling methods for nuclear fuels, with the aim of better understanding the fuel behaviour at atomistic and macroscopic scale.

• Status of modelling of

selected classes of

phenomena relevant to

nuclear fuel behaviour

• Description of the

techniques used to

obtain the material

properties necessary to

describe the physical

phenomena

• Principles and

limitations of each

modelling technique

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Working Group on Fuel Safety (WGFS)

• Under the guidance of Committee on the Safety of

Nuclea Installations (CSNI)

• Chair: M. Petit (IRSN)

• Vice-Chair: W. Wiesenack (HRP)

• Secretary: R. Rehacek (NEA)

• Activities of the WGFS cover the following topics:

– Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCA)

– Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA)

– Fuel Safety Criteria

– Leaking fuel impacts and practices

– Fukushima related topics

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OECD Workshop on Accident Tolerant Fuel

(Dec. 2012)

• Aiming to analyse design requirements and potential

options, defining matrices, and identifying the key elements

for future collaborations:

– Innovative cladding materials and fuel matrices allowing to strongly

enhance the grace time in a prolonged loss of coolant / loss of heat

sink accident

– 55 participants from 16 countries

– 4 sessions, 26 technical presentations and 2 breakout sessions (on

safety and technological issues) describing the current on-going

activities and requirements for new materials in this domain

– Follow-up activity will be defined in a meeting scheduled for late

2013, including the synergies to be established with advanced multi-

scale modelling techniques of WPMM

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© 2013 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Thank you for your attention. Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems

WPRS website:

http://www.oecd-nea.org/science/wprs/index.html

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