To investigate the mechanical integrity of spent nuclear fuel, the failure behavior of the cladding tube was examined under accident conditions. According to the SNL report, the failure behavior of cladding can be broadly classified into two types. The first is failure due to bending load caused by falling. The second is failure due to pinch load caused by space grid. In this study, mechanical integrity was evaluated through the stress intensity factor applied to the crack in failure behavior due to bending load. Since the exact value of the impact load due to fall was unknown, the load was applied by increasing the value up to 200 G in 20 G increments. The size of the crack is an important input variable, and 300 um was given by referring to the EPRI report, and the elastic modulus, a material property that determines the stress field, was given 75.22 GPa by referring to the FRAPCON code. Since the relationship between the direction of stress and the direction of the crack is also a major variable, simulations were conducted for both cracks perpendicular to and parallel to the stress direction. It was confirmed that at a load of 200 G, when the crack was parallel to the stress direction, stress concentration did not occur and had a very low stress intensity factor 0.01 􀜯􀜲􀜽√􀝉. When perpendicular to the direction of stress, the stress intensity factor showed a value of 1 􀜯􀜲􀜽√􀝉. However, considering that the critical value of the stress intensity factor due to hydride is 5 􀜯􀜲􀜽√􀝉, it can be seen that perpendicular result also ensures the mechanical integrity of the cladding.

Spent nuclear fuels should be safely stored until being disposed and dry storage system is predominantly used to retain the fuels. Thermal analysis to estimate temperatures of spent nuclear fuel and the storage system should be performed to evaluate whether the temperatures exceed safety limit. Recently, thermal hydraulic analysis with CFD codes is widely used to investigate the temperature of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage. COBRA-SFS is a legacy code based on subchannel analysis code, and its fidelity is verified for evaluating the thermal analysis for licensing a dry cask system. Herein, thermal analysis result based on CFD and COBRA-SFS codes is compared and the Dry Cask Simulator (DCS) is assessed as a benchmark experiment in this study. Extended Storage Collaborating Program (ESCP) led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is organized to address the degradation effects of spent nuclear fuel during long-term dry storage, and DCS is the first phase of the program. The dry storage system, containing a single BWR assembly in a canister, was designed to produce validation-quality data for thermal analysis model. ANSYS FLUENT was used to simulate DCS. Simulations were conducted in various decay heat and helium pressure inside the canister. In realistic conditions of decay heat and helium pressure of actual dry cask system, CFD and COBRA-SFS analysis results gave good agreement with experimental measurement. Peak temperatures of channel can, basket, canister and shell predicted by CFD simulation also showed good prediction and the discrepancies were less than 7 K while measurements uncertainty was 7 K. In high decay heat and high pressure condition, however, CFD and COBRA-SFS underestimated peak cladding temperature than experimental results.

Research on the safety of nuclear spent fuel has been heavily experimented and modelled from a mechanical perspective. The issues of corrosion, irradiation creep, hydride and hydrogen embrittlement have been addressed more than two decades since the early 2000s. Among these degradation behavior, hydrogen embrittlement and hydride reorientation have been the most important topics for establishing the integrity of nuclear spent fuel and have been studied in depth. In order to assess the safety of spent nuclear fuel, firstly, it is necessary to establish the safety criteria in all nuclear cycle, i.e., the failure criteria guidelines for nuclear fuel assemblies and nuclear fuel rods, and then examine the safety analysis. The contents of U.S.NRC Regulations, Title 10 General, Chapter 1 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), Part 50, 71 and 72, describe the safety criteria for the safety assessment of nuclear fuel assemblies and nuclear fuel rods. In this study, technically important points in safety analysis on nuclear fuel are checked through the reference of those NRC regulation. As result, we confirmed that the safety assessment of nuclear fuel after 20 years of interim storage is now being tested by ORNL and PNNL. There are not quantitative criteria related to material safety. However qualitative criteria which is dependent on environmentally condition describe the safety analysis. There is some literature study about DBTT, yield stress, ultimate tensile strength, flexural rigidity data. In FRAPCON code Modelling of yield strength and creep had been established, but radial hydride or hydride reorientation has not considered.

Spent nuclear fuels should be safely stored until being disposed and dry storage system is predominantly used to retain the fuels. During long-term storage, there are several mechanisms that could result in the degradation of spent nuclear fuels, and the temperature is the most important parameter to predict and estimate the degradation behaviors. Therefore, thermal analysis to estimate temperatures of spent nuclear fuel and the storage system should be performed to evaluate whether the temperatures exceed safety limit. Recently, thermal hydraulic analysis with CFD codes is widely used to investigate the temperature of spent nuclear fuel in dry storage. Herein, Explicit CFD analysis model is introduced and validated by estimating the thermal hydraulic response of the dry storage system that is Dry Cask Simulator (DCS). Extended Storage Collaborating Program (ESCP) led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is organized to assess degradation effects of spent nuclear fuel during long-term dry storage, and DCS is the first phase of the program. The dry storage system, containing a single BWR assembly in a canister, was designed to produce validation-quality data for thermal analysis model. ANSYS FLUENT is used to simulate DCS, and the test condition of 0.5 kW decay heat and 100 kPa helium pressure was investigated in this study. In case of peak cladding temperature (PCT), PCT from the experiment was 376 K while that of CFD was 374 K. It implies CFD simulation gives good agreement with experimental measurement. Peak temperatures of channel can, basket, canister and shell predicted by CFD simulation also show good prediction and the discrepancies were less than 7 K while measurements uncertainty was 7 K.

Spent nuclear fuels released from the reactor are stored in cooling pools and then stored in dry storage casks. During the transition from the wet storage to dry storage cask, a vacuum drying process is used to remove residual water in the cask. During the vacuum drying process, gas pressure is reduced to below 400 Pa to promote evaporation and water removal. KAERI is developing a PWR single assembly (PLUS7) test equipment to simulate the thermal flow in spent fuel assembly. In this study, the thermal conductivity of air at low pressure was derived to perform the thermal analysis of the canister in vacuum. In addition, thermal analyses were performed for the canister with backfill gases of helium, air, and a vacuum in the vertical orientation using the COBRA-SFS code. At low pressure, the thermal conductivity of air depends on pressure and temperature. The reduced thermal conductivity, kr (W/m-K) was calculated using the curve fit for air at reduced pressure in thin gaps presented in the General Electric Fluid Flow Handbook. 􀝇􀯥/􀝇􀬴 = 􀬵 􀬵􀬾 􀮼􀯍/􀯉􀰋 Where, k0 is the thermal conductivity at atmospheric pressure (W/m-K), P is the reduced (vacuum) pressure (Pa), δ is the gap size (m), T is the temperature (K), and C is the Lasance constant (7.657E-5 N/m-K). The thermal conductivity of air decreases as the pressure decreases. The reduced thermal conductivity of air at pressures of 400 Pa and 40 Pa was calculated to be 0.97 and 0.77, respectively. For the analysis in vacuum, no enhancement of the convective heat transfer was assumed (Nu=1.0). For the helium backfill, the peak cladding temperature was the lowest and the axial temperature profile was the flattest due to the higher thermal conductivity and lower density of the helium. For the vacuum backfill, the peak cladding temperature was the highest and temperature gradient was the sharpest due to the only radiative heat transfer effect in the fuel assembly.

For the decommissioning or continuous long-term power generation of nuclear power plants, it is necessary to transfer the spent nuclear fuel from the wet storage pool to the dry storage. Spent nuclear fuel should go through the drying process, which is the first step of dry storage. The most important part in the drying process is the removal of the residual water. The spent fuel might be stored in a dry storage system for a long time. The integrity of internal components and spent fuel cladding should be maintained during the storage period. If residual water is present, problems such as aging of metal materials, oxidation of cladding, and the hydride-reorientation could occur. The presence or absence of residual water after vacuum drying is evaluated by pressure. If there is residual water in the vacuum drying process, it evaporates easily at low pressure to form water vapor pressure and the internal pressure rises. In the recent EPRI High burn up demonstration test, the gas inside the canister that satisfied the dryness criteria was extracted and analyzed. It showed that the water content was higher than the expected value. We are conducting verification studies on the pressure evaluation method, which is an indirect evaluation method of vacuum drying. The vacuum drying test was performed on small specimens at Sandia National Laboratory, and quantitative residual water evaluation was also performed. The report did not mention a detailed method for the assessment of residual water. Based on the test results of SNL, direct residual water evaluation was performed using energy balance. If the dryness criteria were satisfied, the quantitative amount of residual water was also evaluated. As a result, almost the same result as the evaluation result of SNL was derived, and it was confirmed that most of the water was removed when the dryness criteria was satisfied.

The conventional research trend on spent fuel was safety analysis based on mechanical perspective. Analysis of spent fuel cladding is based on the temperature of cladding and pressure inside cladding. To improve fuel cladding analysis, precise and accurate thermal safety evaluation is required. In this study a database which is about thermal conductivity and emissivity for the thermal modeling was established for a long-term safety analysis of spent fuel. As a result, we confirmed that the thermal conductivity of zirconium hydride was not accounted in conventional model such as FRAPCON and MATPRO. The conductivity of zirconium and its oxide was evaluated only as a function of temperature. However, the behavior of heat conductivity and emissivity is determined by the change of the material properties. The material properties depend on the microstructural characteristic. It can be seen that this conventional approach does not consider the microstructure change behavior according to vacuum drying process or burn-up induced degradation phenomena. To improve the thermal properties of spent nuclear fuel cladding, the measurement experiments of heat conduction and emissivity are required according to spent fuel experience and status such as the number of vacuum drying, cooling rate, burn up, hydrogen concentration and oxidation degree. In previous domestic reports and papers, we found that relative data between thermal properties and spent fuel experience and status does not exist. Recently, in order to understand the failure mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement, many studies have been conducted by accounting and spent fuel experience and status in a mechanical perspective. If microstructure information could be obtained from these studies, the modeling of thermal conductivity and emissivity will be possible indirectly. According to a recent abroad paper, it was confirmed that the thermal conductivity decreased by about 30% due to irradiation damage. The radiation damage effects on thermal conductivity also has not been studied in zirconium oxide and hydride. These un-revealed phenomena will be considered for the thermal safety model of spent fuel.

Detailed temperature distributions of the spent fuel are required to evaluate the long-term integrity of the dry storage system. In this study, a subchannel analysis method was established to obtain the detailed temperatures of a spent fuel using the COBRA-SFS code. The SAHTT (Single Assembly Heat Transfer Test) model was selected as the subchannel analysis. It was developed at the PNL to investigate heat transfer characteristics of spent PWR fuel under dry storage conditions. The SAHTT has a 15×15 rod array with simulated rods 0.42 in. (10.7 mm) in diameter. Control rod thimbles were modeled with unheated rods. The COBRA-SFS input consists a detailed subchannel model with 256 subchannels, 225 rods, and 8 slab nodes. The heat generation rate was axially uniform with total power of 1.0 kW. Subchannel analyses were performed for the vertical orientation under three different backfills of air, helium, and vacuum. For the vacuum backfill, the peak temperature was the highest and temperature gradients the sharpest only due to the radiation heat transfer effect. For the helium backfill, peak temperature was lowest and the axial profiles flattest due to the higher conductivity and lower density of helium. Subchannel analyses were also performed to evaluate the effect of thermal parameters such as surface emissivity, convective heat transfer coefficients, and flow resistance coefficients on the PCT (Peak Cladding Temperature). The PCT was affected by the emissivity of the fuel rod and the basket, and in particular, the basket emissivity had a greater effect. The PCT was affected by the Nusselt number, but the range of the Nusselt number is around 3.66. Therefore, the effect of the Nusselt number on the PCT will not be significant. As a result of the analysis according to the flow resistance coefficients, the PCT was affected by the wall friction factor, but the loss coefficients from the space grid had little effect. Subchannel technique obtained from this work can be used to predict the detailed temperature distributions of spent fuel assembly.

Dry storage is a predominantly used method as a spent nuclear fuel storage system after spent nuclear fuel is cooled in the spent fuel pool. Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive and it generates heat called decay heat originated by fission products and radiation. Therefore, temperature of spent nuclear fuel should be predicted whether its cladding temperature is maintained under 400°C, which is the allowable temperature limit of cladding in a dry storage. ANSYS Fluent and COBRA-SFS are predominantly used computational method to investigate the temperature of spent nuclear fuels in a dry storage. Herein, thermal analysis results with the methods were compared based on a Single Assembly Heat Transfer Test, which is a heat test with an electrically heated model of a single PWR fuel assembly in a dry cask performed at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory. Decay heat was 1kW and backfill gas was air. Fix temperature boundary condition is applied to inner shell according to measured temperature. In case of peak cladding temperature (PCT), Fluent predicted 240–284°C, while COBRA-SFS gave 243–292°C. The discrepancy between the codes is under 2.5%. The location where PCT took place was 3.65 m from the bottom of the assembly in both results. However, temperature difference between the upper and lower region of the assembly based on the Fluent was smaller than the temperature difference based on the COBRA-SFS. It means the heat was well transferred in an axial direction with Fluent compared to COBRA-SFS. In lower plenum region where air was naturally circulated, COBRASFS had disadvantages compared to Fluent because it modeled the lower plenum by single node, so it was hard to simulate convection heat transfer by natural circulation. natural circulation speed of air in a center region of the assembly was 0.07–0.1 m·s−1 in both cases.

The temperature of the spent fuel cladding is the basis for the evaluation of integrity. It is almost impossible to directly measure the temperature of spent nuclear fuel. Because spent nuclear fuel is dangerous. We are preparing a test to measure the cladding temperature with an equivalent fuel assembly by simulating the characteristics of spent nuclear fuel. PLUS7 was selected as the test target in consideration of the amount of generation, thermal water retention, residual moisture content, and manufacturability of domestic spent nuclear fuel. The nuclear fuel assembly is planned to be manufactured in two main ways. Except for the cladding tube that simulates decay heat, the structure will be manufactured by KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, and fuel rods and canisters will be manufactured by SUKEGAWA Electric in Japan. The same nuclear fuel assemblies as commercial skeleton will be applied. The temperature of the fuel cladding will be measured by attaching a thermocouple directly to the surface of the cladding tube. The canister is composed of a basket, a basket supporter, a heater and drain tube, a lead, and an observation window. The working fluid is water and helium, and the maximum pressure inside the canister is 1.1 MPa and the minimum pressure is 0.05 kPa. The maximum temperature of the surface of the cladding was designed to be 500°C, and the maximum temperature of the sealing to keep airtightness was designed to be 250°C. To satisfy this condition, we plan to evaluate the leak rate below 10−5 std.cm3·s−1, which is equivalent to helium tightness. The maximum heat of decay per fuel rod is 13 W, and one assembly is up to 3 kW. Production of the test equipment is expected to be completed in the first half of next year, and testing is scheduled to begin in the second half of next year. The test will evaluate all environments that the spent nuclear fuel may experience, such as dry normal conditions, abnormal conditions, wet conditions, and dry conditions. All data will be used for interpretation verification purposes.