A FULL CORE INTEGRAL FUEL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF SIC CLADDING

摘要

To better understand the implications of using SiC cladding in a commercial reactor, a framework has been developed to evaluate the fuel performance of a large fraction of the fuel rods in a typical PWR core. This framework makes use of the newly developed RedTail fuel performance code and the CASMO-SIMULATE reactor physics suite. Applying current component specific material properties, this framework is utilized to assess a three-layer SiC cladding design and compare it to the performance of zirconium-based clad fuel under the same conditions. This assessment reveals higher fuel temperatures and plenum pressures associated with the SiC cladding, similar to those observed in previous single pin analyses. Of note, however, is the observation that the SiC cladding stresses increase significantly during reactor shutdowns due to the presence of radial gradients of swelling (growth) strain. Additionally, the hottest and most burnt fuel rods do not present the most challenging conditions to the SiC clad fuel. This implies that a capability to analyze the fuel performance of an entire core is necessary to find the expected cladding failure risk associated with the deployment of various SiC cladding designs.