Sensitivity Analysis of Silicon Carbide Composite Clad Uranium Carbide Fuel for a Long-Life Gas-cooled Fast Reactor under Normal Operation

摘要

The fuel performance analyses have been conducted for the hot rod, including the evaluation of UC swelling model and sensitivity to fuel design parameters. Findings from this preliminary evaluation are as follows: 1.The fuel temperature is well below its melting point, which is attributable to the use of UC fuel and annular pellet geometry. 2.The cladding hoop stress is well below the one-third of UTS. This is true when the restrained swelling is used or the free swelling is accommodated by the fuel pore. However, as the restrained swelling model assumes that the swelling is accommodated by the hot pressing, it is required to verify the restrained swelling specific to EM~2 fuel. 1.The cladding hoop strain is high with the present swelling model and design parameters. However, it is feasible to improve the overall fuel performance by adjusting some key design parameters.