Revisiting Stainless Steel as PWR Fuel Rod Cladding after Fukushima Daiichi Accident  

作　　者：Alfredo Abe Claudia Giovedi Daniel de Souza Gomes Antonio Teixeira e Silva 

机构地区：[1]Nuclear Engineering Center, Nuclear and Energy Research Institute, Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission, Sao Paulo05508-000, Brazil [2]Laboratory for Developing of Nuclear Fuel and Instrumentation, Navy Technological Center, Sao Paulo 05508-000, Brazil

出　　处：《Journal of Energy and Power Engineering》2014年第6期973-980,共8页能源与动力工程（美国大卫英文）

摘　　要：In the past, stainless steel was utilized as cladding in many PWRs （pressurized water reactors）, and its performance under irradiation was excellent. However, stainless steel was replaced by zirconium-based alloy as cladding material mainly due to its lower neutron absorption cross section. Now, stainless steel cladding appears as a possible solution for safety problems related to hydrogen production and explosion as occurred in Fukushima Daiichi accident. The aim of this paper is to discuss the steady-state irradiation performance using stainless steel as cladding. The results show that stainless steel rods display higher fuel temperatures and wider pellet-cladding gaps than Zircaloy rods and no gap closure. The thermal performance of the two rods is very similar and the neutron absorption penalty due to stainless steel use could be compensating by combining small increase in U-235 enrichment and pitch size changes.

关 键 词：Austenitic stainless steel cladding Zircaloy cladding PWR fuel rod steady-state fuel performance codes. 

分 类 号：TL352[核科学技术—核技术及应用] X591[环境科学与工程—环境工程]