COPERNIC Framatome ANP fuel rod performance code. Status and developments to assess high demanding operations and advanced materials

摘要

COPERNIC is an advanced fuel rod performance code developed by Framatome ANPrnover the past ten years. The main objectives of COPERNIC are to accurately predict steady-staternand transient fuel operations at high burnups and for advanced materials such as the FramatomernANP M5? cladding and doped fuel pellets. COPERNIC is now validated up to 67 GWd/tM forrnUO_2 fuel with Zircaloy-4 and M5? claddings. Recent model improvements focused on fuelrnthermal models for burnups greater than 100 GWd/tM, on fission gas release model, on thernmechanical and corrosion models for the M5?, and on pellet-cladding mechanical interactionrn(PCMI). The code enables fast and robust fuel rod calculations, a must within an industrialrnframework where safety evaluations may require the analyses of a full core and of a veryrnlarge number of transients. This is the result of a modeling that is kept simple withoutrnexcluding the key physics features. COPERNIC is now licensed world-wide. ThernCOPERNIC experience will be integrated in the future fuel performance code of FramatomernANP which will focus on highly demanding LWR operation, higher burnups with a target ofrn75 GWd/tM for M5?, doped fuel modeling, and improved PCMI modeling.