Fission Product Release Behavior of Individual Coated Fuel Particles for High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors

RESULTS OF A PHENOMENA IDENTIFICATION AND RANKING TABLE (PIRT) EXERCISE FOR A SEVERE ACCIDENT IN A SMALL MODULAR HIGH-TEMPERATURE GAS-COOLED REACTOR

Canada has attracted specific interest from developers of nonwater-cooled small modular reactor (SMR) technologies, including concepts based on high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). It is anticipated that some research and development (R&D) will be necessary to support safety analysis and licensing of these reactors in Canada. The Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) process is a formalized method in which a panel of experts identifies which physical phenomena are most relevant to the reactor safety analysis and how well understood these phenomena are. The PIRT process is thus a tool to assess current knowledge levels and (or) predictive capabilities of models, thus providing direction to a focused R&D program. This paper summarizes the results of a PIRT process performed by a panel of experts at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories for a limiting or “worst-case” accident scenario at a generic HTGR-type SMR. Suggestions are given regarding the highest priority R&D items to support severe accidents analysis of these reactors.

Silver and cesium diffusion dynamics at the β-SiC Σ5 grain boundary investigated with density functional theory molecular dynamics and metadynamics

The diffusion and release of silver-110m, a strong γ-radiation emitter, through silicon carbide in coated nuclear fuel particles has remained an unsolved topic since it was first observed 40 years ago. The challenge remains to explain why, contrary to other elements, silver is capable of escaping the ceramic diffusion barriers. The current work investigates the underlying differences in the diffusion of silver and cesium along a symmetric tilt Σ5 grain boundary of β-SiC through accelerated density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations. The energy barriers extracted from the simulations give diffusion coefficients that are in reasonable agreement with experiment for silver (2.19 × 10(-19) to 1.05 × 10(-17) m(2) s(-1)), but for cesium the equivalent calculated coefficients for this mechanism are much smaller (3.85 × 10(-23) to 2.15 × 10(-21) m(2) s(-1)) than those found experimentally. Analysis of the simulated structures and electron densities and comparisons with the calculations of other researchers suggest that diffusion of silver and cesium in β-SiC proceeds via different mechanisms. The mechanisms of cesium diffusion appear to be dominated by its relatively large size and repulsive interactions with the silicon and carbon atoms; β-SiC grain boundaries still offer higher energy barriers to diffusion. Silver, on the other hand, is not only smaller in size but, as we show for the first time, can also participate in weak bonding interactions with the host atoms where favorable geometries allow, thus reducing the energy barrier and enhancing the rate of diffusion.