SEDL / STP / STP754-EB / STP37051S

Clad Failure Modeling

Ballinger, R
Senior research engineer, president, and senior research physicist, Entropy Limited, Lincoln, Mass.

Christensen, R
Senior research engineer, president, and senior research physicist, Entropy Limited, Lincoln, Mass.

Eilbert, R
Senior research engineer, president, and senior research physicist, Entropy Limited, Lincoln, Mass.

Oldberg, S
Project manager, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.

Rumble, E
Vice president, Science Applications Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

Was, G
Assistant professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Pages: 17    Published: Jan 1982

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Abstract

The pellet-clad interaction phenomenon is the dominant present-day failure cause in Zirconium-clad uranium oxide fuel. A recently developed theory for this phenomenon is embodied in the SPEAR computer program. SPEAR's prediction of fuel failure is rooted both in mechanistic theory and in a large base of observational data. The prediction is found to be of high accuracy notwithstanding limitations in the accuracy of the mechanistic theory and the scope of the observational data base.