Modelling of Fuel Behaviour in Design Basis Accidents and Design Extension Conditions : Proceedings of a Technical Meeting

Increased demands on fuel performance, including transient regimes, higher discharge burnup and longer fuel cycles, have resulted in an increase of loads on fuel and core internals. To satisfy these fuel performance demands while ensuring compliance with safety criteria, new national and international programmes have been launched and advanced modelling codes are being developed. The need for adequate analysis of all aspects of fuel performance to prevent a failure, and to predict fuel behaviour in accident conditions, was evidenced by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
In response to a recommendation by the Technical Working Group on Fuel Performance and Technology, the IAEA organized a Technical Meeting on Modelling of Fuel Behaviour in Design Basis Accidents and Design Extension Conditions. The meeting, hosted by the China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute of the China General Nuclear Power Group, in Shenzhen, China, on 13–16 May 2019, was the tenth in the series of IAEA meetings on the topic of fuel performance in accident conditions. The previous meetings were held in 1980 (jointly with OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, in Helsinki), 1983 (Risø, Denmark), 1986 (Vienna), 1988 (Preston, United Kingdom), 1992 (Pembroke, Canada), 1995 (Dimitrovgrad, Russian Federation), 2001 (Halden, Norway), 2011 (Mito, Japan) and 2013 (Chengdu, China). ... mehrThe two most recent meetings focused on modelling of fuel behaviour and modelling under design basis accidents and design extension conditions, reflecting the importance of the subject and the urgent need to accelerate the development and verification of accident related fuel behaviour codes.
The current meeting provided a forum for international experts to review the state of the art of code development for modelling fuel performance of nuclear fuel for water cooled reactors with regard to steady state and transient conditions, for design basis and early phases of severe accidents, including experimental support for code validation for traditional and advanced technology fuels. The meeting was attended by 26 specialists in fuel performance modelling and experimental support from 14 Member States and the Joint Research Centre. Twenty papers were presented at five sessions that covered all topics of the meeting subject. Meeting participants discussed in detail two recently completed coordinated research projects, one on Fuel Modelling in Accident Conditions (FUMAC), held from 2014 to 2018, and one on Analysis of Options and Experimental Examination of Fuels for Water Cooled Reactors with Increased Accident Tolerance (ACTOF), held from 2015 to 2019. A round table discussion on the information exchange in R&D on advanced technology materials helped to define a scope and to outline a new CRP entitled Testing and Simulation for Advanced Technology and Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF-TS).