MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECDNEA SFP Project to be performed in the time

frame 2009-2012

S. Gntay, J. Birchley

April 2009

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

1 1.1

Introduction and Reasons for MELCOR Developmental Efforts at PSI Background

Methods for Estimation of Leakages and Consequences of Releases (MELCOR) [1] is a fully integrated, engineering-level computer code whose primary purpose is to model the progression of accidents in light water reactor nuclear power plants. A broad spectrum of severe accident phenomena in both boiling and pressurized water reactors is treated in MELCOR in a unified framework. Current uses of MELCOR include estimation of fission product source terms and their uncertainties in a variety of applications. MELCOR is used by many nuclear safety authority and industrial organisations worldwide, and is the principal system-level tool for assessment of plant in Switzerland. The models and validation status are publicly accessible. PSI adopted MELCOR 1.8.5 as a prospective analysis tool in 2000, beginning with a programme of code assessment. Validation studies have continued at PSI in parallel with applications, as new code versions have been released. MELCOR 1.8.6 was released for beta testing in 2005, with new models designed to address current safety issues. Following a period of assessment, it was issued as the current production version in 2008. At about the same time a completely new version, MELCOR 2.1 was released for beta testing. For the past 3 years PSI has assessed MELCOR 1.8.6 for accidents involving air ingress to the reactor vessel. This can lead to accelerated core degradation and increased fission product release, specifically for the highly radiotoxic ruthenium. It was concluded that development of MELCOR was needed to capture the accelerated cladding oxidation that can take place under air ingress conditions (characterised by transition from formation of a protective oxide film to non-protective breakaway oxidation at a significantly higher rate). So, a stand-alone model for Zircaloy/air oxidation was developed by PSI consistent with MELCORs needs, with some assessment against data. Note was taken of work relevant to air ingress into spent fuel ponds, which typically takes place at lower temperatures with different flow conditions, but these results, involving similar phenomena, were not specifically considered in formulating the model. This programme of code assessment, review of data on air ingress, and model development was supported in the frame of phase I of an agreement between ENSI and PSI. The model formulation and developmental testing has been completed. Details of the technical background, safety significance and status of the work are given in the accompanying documents [2, 3, 4, 5]. To increase confidence in the model, validation is needed against independent separate-effects data, and against integral data. Also, there is a need to generalise the model to cope with advanced cladding materials such as M5 and Zirlo, which could well feature in Swiss new build. It also needs to be implemented in the current development version of MELCOR, now version 2.1, requiring active collaboration with US-NRC and the development team at Sandia National Laboratories. Additional funding is requested for this work, as indicated below. Turning to the related issue of air ingress into spent fuel ponds, the OECD Sandia Fuel project proposes an experimental programme and related analyses for the characterization of hydraulic and ignition phenomena of prototypic LWR fuel assemblies

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

in spent fuel ponds. It would provide thermal hydraulic and fire ignition/propagation data for accident code validation under air flow conditions associated with (a) spent fuel pool complete loss of inventory accident; (b) late phase core melt progression; (c) complete loss of water during refuelling (e.g. via earthquake-induced structural damage); and (d) dry cask storage. These will support level 2 PSA of spent fuel pond accidents, where validation of the analysis codes, such as MELCOR, is required to help assure highquality PSA results, and also to help formulate prevention and mitigation strategies. Experiments under US-NRC funding of $4.0M over 3 years have already studied thermal hydraulic characterisation of BWR fuel assemblies, along with ignition, axial and radial propagation of zirconium fires in air. Modelling with an ad-hoc version of MELCOR, modified to handle spent fuel pond boundary conditions, showed that it was possible to the match the peak temperature histories and oxygen consumption. Similar data are now required for PWR assemblies. US-NRC therefore proposed a continued programme using such bundles, which was endorsed by the international community [6]. The project will start in April 2009. Data would be provided to all partners from the BWR programme as well as for the foreseen PWR programme; these would not be publicly available. A summary of the project background, motivation, goals, experimental description, workscope, timeframe, costs, deliverables, participation are given in Appendices A, B. The proposed programme cost is $5.2M over 3 years, half paid by US-NRC, with the rest divided amongst the partners, of which currently there are 14 including major regulatory organisations world-wide. The Swiss contribution would be $100k over the 4 years as the project participation fee; technical work and travel would be funded from within PSI. The work has a natural link with the existing work on Zircaloy oxidation in air, indicated above, for which continuation of funding over 4 years is separately sought, at CHF 50k per year. The total financial commitment requested from ENSI is therefore about CHF 80k per year, or CHF 320k overall for the 4-year period 2009-2012. PSI therefore request financial support from ENSI for air-ingress related activities under the terms summarised above. 1.2 MELCOR Status

The current production version of the code is MELCOR 1.8.6, initially released in September 2005 as a beta-version. This development followed recognition of limitations in the then frozen version 1.8.5 which meant that phenomena associated with a number of severe accident issues cannot be represented. The new models incorporated in MELCOR 1.8.6 to remedy some of these deficiencies. These include: - Eliminating the separate and not fully consistent treatments of core and lower head processes, - In-core melt pool formation, - Crust formation, failure and melt relocation, - Quenching, - Flashing, - Silver and B4C release from PWR/BWR control rods, - Creep and stress corrosion damage. At that time MELCOR 1.8.5 was still supported as the production version and was being used by PSI, the Swiss utilities, and by organisations throughout the world. In 2008 MELCOR 1.8.6 model development was frozen and it was designated at the current
Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

production. SNL are continuing to maintain version 1.8.6, but 1.8.5 is no longer supported. In parallel with the development of MELCOR 1.8.6, the entire package was rewritten in accordance with the latest coding standard, FORTRAN95. This version was designated MELCOR 2 and was first released in 2005 as the beta-version 2.0. However, deficiencies required revisions, and a second beta-version, 2.1, was released in 2008. An automatic 1.8.6 to 2 converter was written and issued as part of the package, as well as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to assist the preparation and maintenance of input decks. There are two key features of MELCOR 2. First, a design goal of the early versions (i.e. 2.0 and 2.1) was complete replication of all the physical models included in version 1.8.6. This means that all model validation of 1.8.6 carries over to MELCOR 2, provided the implementation and integration into the new code is verified. A second feature of MELCOR 2 is a much more structured input specification, based on defining the separate components of the input model as objects in the software engineering sense. This implied additional changes to the input and output interfaces in order to maintain back-compatibility. Any further MELCOR developments will be the subject of later versions (i.e. 2.2, 2.3 etc.) A consequence of this situation is that applications now depend on the availability of an effective working and validated implementation of MELCOR 1.8.6. Safety issues beyond the scope of the version 1.8.6 and 2.1 models must be addressed using a future version of MELCOR 2, the most notable of which is air ingress. 1.3 Significance of the Proposed Project at the International Level

The potential consequences of air ingress were highlighted in the course of investigations of the accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2, and were later reported by Powers [7]. Failure of the reactor vessel was prevented, marginally, by operator action. However, had vessel failure occurred there would have been a major path for ingress of air into the damaged fuel rods remaining in the vessel. Since then other air ingress scenarios involving a reactor or spent fuel pond accident have been identified. The latter category of scenario has received special attention in recent years following the realisation of a potential major seismic event which could result in breakdown of coolant supplies to the fuel pond, or even damage to the containment infrastructure causing leakage of coolant from the fuel pond. Although there was not, at that time during the 1980s, any systematic treatment of air oxidation, correlations had been developed on the basis of limited data [8, 9] and these had been adapted for use in MELCOR in attempt to provide a conservative statement of the thermal response to an air ingress scenario. A feature of all these correlations was that the controlling processes were similar to those which govern steam oxidation. The US-NRC later commissioned experimental studies [10] to obtain data with which to establish a credible physical basis for using the correlations. More recent experiments [11, 12, 13, 14] demonstrated that the processes that govern air oxidation are quite different from those which apply to steam oxidation. A consequence of these erroneous assumptions is that air oxidation cannot be reliably predicted (or even described conservatively) by any of the models used in the currently available codes. A new modelling approach and an appropriate database are therefore necessary. This realisation has motivated a number of major multi-national initiatives. The OECD-NEA SFP project is the latest of these and most ambitious attempt to represent the behaviour in a prototypic manner.
Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

1.4

Significance of the Proposed Project for ENSI and Swiss Utilities

The licensing status of all the Swiss power plants must be at least as sound as those in neighbouring countries. Switzerland is one of several countries in which new build is very likely within the foreseeable future. However, the risk of a seismic event is of significant prominence in this region, and is specifically included in the space of accident scenarios to be addressed as part of the licensing procedure. Therefore there is a strong need for ENSI and the Swiss utilities to be fully cognizant of the underlying technical factors, and to possess the best available tools to address the safety issues. 2. 2.1 Project Objectives Anticipated project goals

PSIs main objective in the severe accident research is to realise the knowledge thus gained in terms of benefits which are made available to the end users. The MELCOR code accompanied by the competence acquired over many years in a range of severe accident areas constitutes the vehicle to reach this goal. Here, the ENSI and plant operators are the end users. The governing objective of the continued model development and assessment is to make it possible to establish a sound basis for assessment of air ingress scenarios. 2.2 Anticipated resolution of MELCOR issues and remaining issues after the project

As discussed above, one of the most notable topics of present concern is the effect of exposing overheated, damaged fuel rods to air as a result of a reactor accident or loss of coolant from a spent fuel. Oxidation of Zircaloy cladding in air results in accelerated heating, and it is important to be able to predict the accident evolution following air ingress. There is, in addition, an immediate consequence concerning potential source term. The hotter and more severely degraded state of the fuel rods, together with the oxygen-rich environment promote enhanced release of the radio-toxic fission product, ruthenium. The PSI model development and the experiments to be conducted by Sandia within the OECD project will make a large contribution to being able to predict the boundary conditions. The release of ruthenium itself involves processes in addition the air oxidation of Zircaloy cladding. These are being addressed separately via recent and ongoing programmes such as RUSET and EPICUR conducted with internationals collaborations. The ultimate goal of PSI and ENSI, regardless of the particular emphasis of the PSI effort, is to guarantee that the outcome will be a part of the SNLs overall programme of MELCOR assessment and model development. However, although an initial exchange of ideas about possible assessment cases and further development needs has already taken place between PSI (S. Gntay) and SNL (R. O. Gauntt) (7-9 Nov. 2005, Aix en Provence) it may take longer time to agree a work programme. The overall programme is formulated with provisional activities already proposed to ensure that any delay in starting the modelling work will not endanger the project goals (see the main text of the contract). 2.3 Compliance of the proposed work with the ENSI Strategic Planning Section 7.1.4.4 of Strategie Papier HSK-AN-5284 Rev.1 dated 13.03.2005 on severe accidents emphasised ENSI interests in the continued further development of the

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

computer codes. It further emphasised the importance of improved understanding and acquisition of experimental data on the retention of radioactive fission product and aerosol particles in the secondary side of a steam generator containing ruptured tube(s). ENSIs participation in the ARTIST international consortium project owned and run by PSI has fulfilled the second issue. Section 7.1.4.7 of the same document mentioned the ENSI participation in the US-NRC cooperative severe accident research project (CSARP). ENSI has been a member of the CSARP program since the early eighties. During the last period of agreement with the NRC, ENSI contributed to CSARP by temporarily assigning members of its staff to the SCDAP/RELAP5 code development unit of the NRC. ENSI wishes to maintain its active participation in the CSARP program also in the next period of the agreement with the NRC, replacing the personnel assignment by in-kind contributions for the improvement of the MELCOR code. The current project proposal of PSI offers the possibility to ENSI to fulfil both the first planning issue indicated in Section 7.1.4.4 and the new boundary conditions expressed in Section 7.1.4.7. 2.4 Networking with other Projects Code assessment and further model development is an ongoing activity carried out by SNL and other organizations active in this field. PSI participates in various work packages of the 7th EU Framework SARNET-2 project, among which the assessment and further development of the IRSN-GRS integral severe accident code ASTEC is in the foreground. PSI is committed to contribute with MELCOR studies in this assessment and further developmental efforts. This is in parallel with or follows on from previous MELCOR assessment and development activities in connection with PARAMETER, QUENCH, as well as OECD-NEA SFP. 3. 3.1 Methodology Description of the methodology to be used for model development

Among the candidate topics introduced earlier, oxidation by air is an area of PSIs interest to be pursued at this stage. The preliminary contact with SNL and US-NRC (Nov 7-9., 2005) has indicated that SNL and US-NRC have also a strong interest in this topic which has recently been recognised as a risk relevant due to hypothetical spent fuel accidents. The QUENCH-10 and complementary experiments at FZK have indicated that the increased oxidation kinetics due to the air ingression might not always be manifest if the cladding has already been oxidized in a steam environment. However, a definitive statement awaits further studies, and efforts are underway within the SARNET and ISTP projects to understand the governing processes. This topic is the prime candidate for model development within the proposed project. Provided that it will be agreed among PSI and ENSI, the following methodology will be followed: I. Review and synthesis of experimental data, II. Establishing the parameters affecting oxidation kinetics, e.g., existing oxide layer thickness, oxygen and nitrogen diffusion rate through the oxide layer, etc., hydrating, etc. and their functional forms including independent parameters, etc. III. Developing oxidation kinetics rate equations as functions of pertinent parameters to be developed above,

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

IV. Preparation of a small stand alone program to test the model under simplified conditions, V. Integration of the model in MELCOR, VI. Assessment of MELCOR using separate effect tests on air oxidation. Stages I through IV were successfully completed in phase I if the present initiative. Stages V and VI will depend on active cooperation with the US-NRC and SNL, for which, due to being a CSARP partner, ENSIs further contacts and agreement with US-NRC might be necessary to receive the necessary support from SNL. Analyses of the SFP data will be initially carried out with a special MELCOR code version and input model provided by SNL. It is anticipated that these will provide a baseline on which to investigate the air oxidation phenomena in more detail, and a framework for assessing the PSI model. Eventually it is intended to incorporate the model into an extended MELCOR package. 3.2 Assessment of the proposed Development Method, the Risks Associated with the Model Development, Alternatives

The methodology proposed is the commonly used technique by the international community to develop a model, and integrate it in a code. Provided that the experimental data is available and complete for such purpose and the time required to build is within the remaining time of the ENSI-PSI contract, there is no fundamental risk associated with developing the method and integrating in the code. The successful implementation of the air oxidation model and its demonstration in the context of an integral transient are significant technical tasks. In particular they will depend on the active support of ENSI and the US-NRC and the effective collaboration between PSI and SNL. Since MELCOR 2 is undergoing development and MELCOR 1.8.6 is also a comparatively new code containing many new features, its overall assessment assumes greater significance. The air oxidation model assessment needs to be carried out in harmony with the remaining activities, in a manner to be agreed upon by the relevant partners and consistent with the limited budget of the proposed ENSIPSI project. The SFP project will provide the most prototypic data so far on the air oxidation of spent fuel. The successful completion by SNL of the BWR SFP experiments provides much confidence in the success of the PWR SFP experiments. SNL will provide a special version of MELCOR to enable simulation of the SFP configuration. Combining the SFP features and PSI air oxidation model will, again, depend on close collaboration between PSI and SNL, as well as support by ENSI and US-NRC. 4. Project Management Planned man-months of the project management and scientific work The cost of personnel and travel (foreseen to attend US-NRC CSARP and MELCOR workshop meeting/per year)

The main body of the contract contains detailed information on:

The personal foreseen for this project have at least 25 years/per person of experience covering use of reactor safety codes, plant applications, experimental programs, data analysis, model development, MELCOR usage, etc.

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

5.

Progress of the Project, Milestones and Publications Planned

The code development part of the project started 1.1.2006 with the model development work introduced in Section 3.1 The first three years of the follow-on project are foreseen for the model integration in MELCOR and associated assessment work. Analyses of the SFP experiments will take place in parallel using a special version of MELCOR developed by SNL for the spent fuel pond configuration and provided to participants. It is foreseen eventually to analyses the data with a version of MELCOR with the PSI air oxidation model included. The PERTH diagram below presents the milestones: Developmental steps introduced in Section 3.1 Steps I through IV completed in 2006-2008 V Integration of the model in MELCOR VI Assessment of MELCOR using separate effect tests on air oxidation Analysis of SFP data with SNL supplied MELCOR-SFP Analysis of SFP data with MELCOR incorporating PSI model Further MELCOR assessment2 Reporting1
1

2009

2010

2011

2012

Completed

: Reports will cover the outcome of the work(s) accomplished in the associated reporting period. 2 : Two assessment cases are planned, tests to be selected from MELCOR Assessment Test Matrix introduced in Appendix 1 needs to be agreed upon. It is believed that the developmental efforts will take roughly two calendar years. The following milestones are planned for the first calendar year: a) Implementation of MELCOR 1.8.6/2.1 code updates as released b) Start of the air oxidation model implementation work

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

c) Further contacts and agreement with US-NRC and SNL about the details of code model development work and reporting at the CSARP/MCAP annual meetings. d) November-December 2009: review of the plans for the 2010 and possibly 2011. Four type of dissemination are foreseen: a) Four technical reports as introduced in the PERTH diagram above. b) A seminar, similar to that organized on 11.10.2005, to provide results of the accomplished assessment and other relevant work to ENSI and Utility representatives (the next scheduled is 8. May 2009), c) Yearly presentation to the MCAP workshop organized by SNL and US-NRC, d) One or more submission for journal publication on the assessment and model development work within eight to ten months after the work is completed. 6. Budget

The main body of the contract provides the details of the budget and ENSI participation. 7. Measures for Quality Assurance

Close cooperation with the code developers in the selection of the assessment cases as well as the model development area will provide the necessary measures for assuring the appropriate work to be performed. Additionally, the presentations foreseen for the planned annual ENSI-PSI seminar for the Swiss utilities to be organized by ENSI, USNRC MCAP workshops and its associated discussions, and in particular the reviewed journal publications will testify to the quality of the work. A presentation on the status and achievements can also be made to further secure the quality during the annual LTHScientific Committee Meetings, in which one ENSI representative participates.

Phase II of MELCOR further development in the area of air ingress and participation in OECD-NEA SFP Project

8. [1]

References R. O. Gauntt, R. K. Cole, C. M. Erickson, R. G. Gido, R- D. Gasser, S. B. Rodrigez and M. F. Young, MELCOR Computer Code Manuals, Version 1.8.5 May 2000, NUREG/CR-6119, SAND-2417/2, May 2000. S. Gntay, J. Birchley, T. Haste, A limited assessment and development program proposed for HSK who will use it as an in-kind project to the HSP Participation in the CSARP program of the US-NRC, November 2005 T. Haste and J. Birchley, Code Assessment Programme for MELCOR 1.8.6, HSK Annual Report 2006. T. Haste and J. Birchley, Code Assessment Programme for MELCOR 1.8.6, pp. 151-162, HSK Annual Report 2007.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5] [6]

T. Haste and J. Birchley, Code Assessment Programme for MELCOR 1.8.6, ENSI Annual Report 2009. OECD-NEA, An Experimental Programme and Related Analyses for the Characterization of Hydraulic and Ignition Phenomena of Prototypic Water Reactor Fuel Assemblies, 2009 D. Powers et al, A Review of Technical Issues of Air Ingression during Severe Reactor Accidents, US-NRC NUREG/CR-6218, SAND-0731, September 1994

[7]

[8]

A. Benjamin et al, Spent Fuel Heatup following Loss of Water during Storage, NUREG/CR-0649, SAND77-1371, March 1979 V. Sailor et al, Severe Accidents in Spent Fuel Ponds in Support f Generic Issue 82, US-NRC BNL-NUREG-52093, July 1987 K. Natesan, W.K. Soppet, Air Oxidation Kinetics for Zr-Based Alloys, NUREG/CR-6846, ANL-03/32, March 2004 M. Steinbrueck, U. Stegmeier and T. Ziegler, Prototypical Experiments on Air Oxidation of Zircaloy-4 at High Temperature, FZK 7257, January 2007 G. Schanz et al, Results of QUENCH-10 Experiment on Air Ingress, FZKA 7057, May 2006

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

Ch. Duriez et al, Separate effect Tests on Zirconium Cladding Degradation in Air Ingress Situations, Proceedings of 2nd ERMSAR Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2007 A. Auvinen et al, Progress on ruthenium release and transport under air ingress conditions, Nuclear Engineering and Design 238 (2008) 34183428

[14]

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Appendix A

THE OECD-NEA SFP PROJECT

AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME AND RELATED ANALYSES FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF HYDRAULIC AND IGNITION PHENOMENA OF PROTOTYPIC WATER REACTOR FUEL ASSEMBLIES

1.
1.1

Program Background and Experiment Description

Objective

The objective of the proposed project to is to perform a highly detailed thermal-hydraulic characterization of full length, commercial 1717 pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel assembly mock-ups to provide data for the direct validation of MELCOR or other appropriate severe accident codes. MELCOR model predictions based on extrapolations from the results of a previously conducted boiling water reactor (BWR) study indicate that PWR assemblies will ignite and radially propagate in a spent fuel pool complete-loss-of-coolant accident. The proposed PWR characterization will be similar to that successfully conducted for the BWR study and will lead to two full-scale PWR fire tests where the zirconium alloy cladding is heated in air to ignition. The PWR experimental design and data analysis will be closely coupled with MELCOR modeling as was done in the previous BWR study. The previous BWR results are not directly applicable to a PWR assembly due to significant geometric differences in the assembly designs (see Section 1.3 for details). The most significant difference is the absence of the Zircaloy channel box on the PWR assembly. The annular flow between the tube bundle and storage cell wall is fundamentally different in the PWR leading to unique hydraulic and convective heat transfer characteristics. The absence of the Zircaloy channel box on the PWR assembly also reduces the relative inventory of zirconium and may significantly alter the nature of the axial and radial burn front propagation. The technical expertise gained during the BWR ignition tests allows a number of experimental improvements to be incorporated into the proposed PWR study. An improved thermocouple layout will minimize the number of sensors lost when ignition occurs, allowing more information to be collected on the nature of the burn front. The exclusive use of full length assemblies will
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11

permit the direct measurement of the naturally induced buoyancy driven flow in all assemblies. Finally, the incorporation of prototypically pressurized rods in some assemblies will allow the measurement of the effect of ballooning on the thermal response and ignition characteristics of the PWR assembly. These and other experimental improvements will greatly increase the fidelity of the experimental results obtained from the proposed PWR study. 1.2 Testing Outline

The study will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 will focus on axial heating and burn propagation. A single full length test assembly will be constructed with zirconium alloy clad heater rods. As demonstrated in the previous BWR study, the thermal mass of the compacted MgO powder used to make the electric heater is an excellent match to spent fuel. The assembly will be characterized in two different sized storage cells and conclude with an ignition test. The ignition test will determine where in the assembly ignition first occurs and the nature of the burn along the axis of the assembly. The insulated boundary conditions will experimentally represent a hot neighbor situation which is an important bounding scenario. Phase 2 will address radial heating and burn propagation and will include effects of fuel rod ballooning. Bench scale ballooning rod development will be conducted to finalize the ballooning rod design. Five full length assemblies will be constructed and tested in a 14 configuration. The center assembly will be of the same heated design as used in Phase 1. The four peripheral assemblies will be unheated but highly prototypic, incorporating prototypic fuel tubes and end plugs. These boundary conditions experimentally represent a cold neighbor situation, which complements the bounding scenario covered by Phase 1. The peripheral fuel rods will be filled with high density MgO ceramic sized to precisely match the thermal mass of spent fuel. Studies using this test assembly will conclude with a fire test where the center assembly is heated to ignition, which eventually propagates radially to the peripheral assemblies. All of the fuel rods in two of the four peripheral assemblies will be pressurized with helium so that these fuel rods will balloon when the zirconium alloy cladding reaches high enough temperature. The two peripheral assemblies without pressurized rods would serve as control for evaluating the effect of ballooning. The pressurized rods in two peripheral assemblies are expected to balloon before they ignite. The ballooning will restrict the buoyancy driven flow in the assembly which in turn will increase the heating rate and result in a more rapid progression to ignition. Comparison of the induced flow and thermal response of the two peripheral assemblies with ballooned rods and the two peripheral assemblies without ballooned rods will provide a direct measure of the effect of ballooning.

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As was done in the previous BWR study, MELCOR modeling results will be utilized in all stages of testing. Pre-test MELCOR modeling results will be used to guide the experimental test assembly design and instrumentation. For example, the location and routing of thermocouples as well as the sizing of hot wire flow sensors will be based on the initial MELCOR outputs. MELCOR modeling results will also be used to choose experimental operating parameters such as the applied assembly power. Post-test data analysis will be performed using the MELCOR model. At each step in the testing, improvements will be made to the MELCOR model such that confidence in the modeling validity will continually improve. 1.3 Technical Motivation

A detailed hydraulic characterization of a full scale, highly prototypic PWR assembly mockup is presently being conducted. This ongoing study is a vital first step for characterizing a PWR assembly but a detailed thermal-hydraulic characterization is also needed. A similar characterization was performed on a full scale, highly prototypic BWR assembly in a previous study but these results are not applicable to a PWR. The geometry of a PWR assembly differs significantly from the BWR assembly in a number of important ways: 1) The water rods in the center of the BWR assembly carry a significant fraction of the total induce flow and aid in cooling. Water rods are not present in the PWR assembly. 2) Eight of the seventy-four rods in the 99 BWR assembly are partial length and end 1.32 m (52 in.) below the top of the assembly. The increased void space in this upper portion of the BWR greatly reduces flow resistance in this upper region. Partial length rods are not present in the PWR assembly. 3) The tube bundle of the BWR is contained inside of a Zircaloy canister that provides a well-defined, confining flow boundary. The absence of a canister on a PWR assembly means that the walls of the storage cell provide the flow boundary and results in an appreciable annular gap between the wall and the tube bundle. This parallel annular flow path complicates the thermal-hydraulic coupling in the PWR assembly. The absence of the Zircaloy channel box on the PWR assembly also reduces the relative inventory of zirconium in the assembly, which is expected to significantly alter the nature of the axial and radial burn front propagation. The presently ongoing PWR hydraulic characterization is providing vital parameters required for calculating the buoyancy driven flow that is established in a heated assembly. This flow must be calculated accurately in order to predict the thermal response of a spent fuel assembly in a complete loss of coolant accident. While the hydraulic characterization parametrically includes the effects of the annular gap, the validity of how severe accident codes can account for the parallel flow paths needs to be demonstrated in order to accurately account for the magnitude of the heat transported to the annular flow. This can only be accomplished through highly prototypic heated experimentation as proposed in this study.
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Fuel rod ballooning is an important phenomena expected to occur prior to ignition.

Rod

ballooning has been shown to occur in the temperature range of 950 K to 1150 K. In the BWR 14 ignition test a peak clad temperature of 1050K was reached at 2.75 hrs and the rapid escalation to ignition began at 4.75 hrs at a peak clad temperature of 1200 K. Thus fuel rod ballooning is expected to occur during the crucial period prior to ignition and could be expected to decrease the time to ignition by an hour or more. 1.4 Current Studies

In an ongoing study, the hydraulic characterization of a full scale, highly prototypic PWR assembly mockup is being conducted using three state-of-the-art quartz crystal differential pressure gauges and a laser Doppler anemometer (LDA). The pressure gauges allow accurate measurement of the pressure drop across individual spacers at very low Reynolds numbers (Re = 12 to 1000). The LDA can accurately measure velocities as low as 0.001 m/s. A clear plastic window running the entire length of the assembly allows probing the flow field at any point in the assembly.

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14