A CASL Test Stand was launched in 2013 to evaluate VERA's fuel performance component, BISON-CASL, as a state-of-the-art fuel performance code for PCI analysis by guiding it through a series of fuel performance progression problems. The progression problems are performed using 2D R-Z axisymmetric models and focus on examining the thermal and mechanical responses of the fuel and cladding to an imposed axially-varying power history. The progression begins with a constant axial power profile imposed during a single cycle ramp up to power followed by steady-state operation for a short length test rod and concludes with the most complex case studied by the Test Stand: a full-length fuel rod with an axially-varying power history containing a first cycle ramp to full power steady-state operation followed by a shutdown and a second-cycle ramp to full power. The evaluation of these progression problems is performed by comparing BISON-CASL results against results from the Falcon fuel rod performance code. The results of this comparison show that while differences exists in the thermomechanical responses between the two codes, the peak inside cladding surface hoop stress calculated by the two codes are within 0.5% of one another.
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