2006 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

Modeling the Integrated Performance of Dispersion
and Monolithic U-Mo Based Fuels

D. M. Wachs, D. E. Burkes, S. L. Hayes, and W. Skerjanc
Idaho National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1625, Scoville, ID 83415-6188 , USA

and

G. L. Hofman, Y. S. Kim, and H. J. Ryu
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439, USA

ABSTRACT

The evaluation and prediction of integrated fuel performance is a critical component of the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program. The PLATE code is the primary tool being developed and used to perform these functions. Recent code developments and the development direction are discussed here. The code was validated for U₃Si₂ based dispersion fuels. The code is being modified to incorporate the most recent fuel/matrix interaction correlations as they become available for both aluminum and aluminum/silicon matrices. The code is also being adapted to treat cylindrical and square pin geometries to enhance the validation database by including the results gathered from various international partners. Additional modeling work has been initiated to evaluate the thermal and mechanical performance requirements unique to monolithic fuels during irradiation.

 

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