Gregory K. Miller

Key differences in the fabrication, irradiation and high temperature accident testing of US and German TRISO-coated particle fuel, and their implications on fuel performance

Historically, the irradiation performance of TRISO-coated gas reactor particle fuel in Germany has been superior to that in the US. German fuel generally has displayed gas release values during irradiation three orders of magnitude lower than US fuel. Thus, we have critically examined the TRISO-coated fuel fabrication processes in the US and Germany and the associated irradiation database with a goal of understanding why the German fuel behaves acceptably, why the US fuel has not faired as well, and what process/production parameters impart the reliable performance to this fuel form. The postirradiation examination results are also reviewed to identify failure mechanisms that may be the cause of the poorer US irradiation performance. This comparison will help determine the roles that particle fuel process/product attributes and irradiation conditions (burnup, fast neutron fluence, temperature, degree of acceleration) have on the behavior of the fuel during irradiation and provide a more quantitative linkage between acceptable processing parameters, as-fabricated fuel properties and subsequent in-reactor performance.

Consideration of the effects on fuel particle behavior from shrinkage cracks in the inner pyrocarbon layer

The fundamental design for a gas-cooled pebble bed reactor relies on an understanding of the behavior of coated particle fuel. The coating layers surrounding the fuel kernels in these spherical particles consist of pyrolytic carbon layers and a silicon carbide (SiC) layer. These coating layers act as a pressure vessel that retains fission product gases. A small percentage of fuel particles may fail during irradiation in the mode of a traditional pressure vessel failure. Fuel performance models used to predict particle behavior have traditionally been one-dimensional models that focus on this failure mechanism. Results of irradiation experiments, however, show that many more fuel particles fail than would be predicted by this mechanism alone. Post-irradiation examinations indicate that multi-dimensional effects, such as the presence of shrinkage cracks in the inner pyrolytic carbon layer (IPyC), contribute to these unexplained failures. Results of a study performed to evaluate the significance of cracking in the IPyC layer on behavior of a fuel particle are presented herein, which indicate that shrinkage cracks could contribute significantly to fuel particle failures.

Statistical approach and benchmarking for modeling of multi-dimensional behavior in TRISO-coated fuel particles

The fundamental design for a gas-cooled reactor relies on the behavior of the coated particle fuel. The coating layers, termed the TRISO coating, act as a mini-pressure vessel that retains fission products. Results of US irradiation experiments show that many more fuel particles have failed than can be attributed to one-dimensional pressure vessel failures alone. Post-irradiation examinations indicate that multi-dimensional effects, such as the presence of irradiation-induced shrinkage cracks in the inner pyrolytic carbon layer, contribute to these failures. To address these effects, the methods of prior one-dimensional models are expanded to capture the stress intensification associated with multi-dimensional behavior. An approximation of the stress levels enables the treatment of statistical variations in numerous design parameters and Monte Carlo sampling over a large number of particles. The approach is shown to make reasonable predictions when used to calculate failure probabilities for irradiation experiments of the New Production – Modular High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Program.

Analytical solution for stresses in TRISO-coated particles

Abstract A closed form solution is presented for stresses in a three-layer spherical pressure vessel representative of the TRISO-coated particles in a New Production Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor. The inner and outer layers are pyrolytic carbons that undergo creep and anisotropic swelling behavior during neutron irradiation of the particle, while the central layer is a silicon carbide that is modeled as an isotropic elastic medium. The three-layer pressure vessel is loaded by an internal fission gas pressure that builds up during irradiation and by a constant external ambient pressure. The three-layer solution is also adapted to two-layer shells where either the inner or outer pyrolytic carbon layer is absent. The closed form solution is well suited to determining particle failure probabilities using the Monte Carlo method because of its ease of programming and speed of execution versus finite difference or finite element method solutions.

Treating asphericity in fuel particle pressure vessel modeling

Abstract The prototypical nuclear fuel of the New Production Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (NP-MHTGR) consists of spherical TRISO-coated particles suspended in graphite cylinders. The coating layers surrounding the fuel kernels in these particles consist of pyrolytic carbon layers and a silicon carbide layer. These coating layers act as a pressure vessel which retains fission product gases. In the operating conditions of the NP-MHTGR, a small percentage of these particles (pressure vessels) are expected to fail due to the pressure loading. The fuel particles of the NP-MHTGR deviate to some degree from a true spherical shape, which may have some effect on the failure percentages. A method is presented that treats the asphericity of the particles in predicting failure probabilities for particle samples. It utilizes a combination of finite element analysis and Monte Carlo sampling and is based on the Weibull statistical theory. The method is used here to assess the effects of asphericity in particles of two common geometric shapes, i.e. faceted particles and ellipsoidal particles. The method presented could be used to treat particle anomalies other than asphericity.

Modular Pebble-Bed Reactor Project: Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program FY 2002 Annual Report

This report documents the results of our research in FY-02 on pebble-bed reactor technology under our Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project entitled the Modular Pebble-Bed Reactor. The MPBR is an advanced reactor concept that can meet the energy and environmental needs of future generations under DOE’s Generation IV initiative. Our work is focused in three areas: neutronics, core design and fuel cycle; reactor safety and thermal hydraulics; and fuel performance.