Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Paul Edelmann

Publication Date

7-11-2013

Abstract

There have been numerous attempts to model fast reactor fuel behavior in the last 40 years. The US currently does not have a fully reliable tool to simulate the behavior of metal fuels in fast reactors. The experimental database necessary to validate the codes is also very limited. The DOE-sponsored Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) has performed various experiments that are ready for analysis. Current metal fuel performance codes are either not available to the AFC or have limitations and deficiencies in predicting AFC fuel performance. A modified version of a new fuel performance code, FEAST-Metal , was employed in this investigation with useful results. This work explores the modeling and analysis of AFC metallic fuels using FEAST-Metal, particularly in the area of constituent actinide diffusion behavior. The FEAST-Metal code calculations for this work were conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in support of on-going activities related to sensitivity analysis of fuel performance codes. A sensitivity analysis of FEAST-Metal was completed to identify important macroscopic parameters of interest to modeling and simulation of metallic fuel performance. A modification was made to the FEAST-Metal constituent redistribution model to enable accommodation of newer AFC metal fuel compositions with verified results. Applicability of this modified model for sodium fast reactor metal fuel design is demonstrated.

Keywords

nuclear, fuel, diffusion

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Nuclear Engineering

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Nuclear Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Cooper, Gary

Second Committee Member

Mammoli, Andrea Alberto

Third Committee Member

Popova, Marina

Download

Share

COinS