Safety Analysis Report for Fort. St. Vrain Test Elements Fte-1Through Fte-8. Proposed Supplement to the Final Safety Analysis Report for Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station.

摘要

The eight fuel test elements proposed for inclusion into Segment 7 (first reload) of the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear reactor are described. It also presents the results of the analysis of the effects of the test elements on plant normal operation and plant safety. Since the eight test elements represent a very small percentage of the core (0.4percent),the analysis confirms that the test elements have a very small effect on the operation of the core underall conditions. The test elements will be manufactured from near-isotropic H-451graphite in place of the needle-coke H-327used in reference reload elements. This results in structurally stronger and superior heat transfer and dimensional change characteristics over the standard reload elements. One major difference between the test elements and the reference fuel is the use of ''cured-in-place''fuel rods as opposed to the reference fuel rods which are cured prior to insertion into the fuel element. The new process has obvious manufacturing advantages,but also has performance advantages, e.g.,improved thermal conductivity. Another difference is that several coated fuel variations which are potential alternatives for future FSV reloads or for application in large HTGRs have been included in the test. These include weak acid resin derived (WAR) TRISO fissile particles and TRISO and BISO oxide fertile particles. The fuel test element program is an important step towards the fullscale demonstration of safe and economic fuel and fuel element manufacturing technologies for the HTGR and will greatly increase the experimental data on the performance of HTGR fuel and graphite candidate materials under realistic power reactor operating conditions. (ERA citation 02:007010)