BASICS – Glasstone & Sessonske

Photoelectric effect - If a photon with energy greater than BE of orbital electron collides
with the electron, it gets ejected out of the atom. The KE of the ejected electron equals to the
difference in the photon energy and BE of the electron.

Compton effect - If a gamma photon makes an elastic collision with an electron in a target
material, both momentum and energy are conserved. A photon of a lower energy is released
since a part of the photon energy gets transferred to the electron.

Pair production – when a gamma ray photon of energy > 1.02 MeV passes through a strong
electric field, the photon will be annihilated and an electron-positron pair is formed.

Gamma ray attenuation – follows the following law:

I = Io e-μxx , where μx is the linear attenuation coefficient, Io is incident gamma intensity, I is the
transmitted intensity

• μx decreases with decreasing energy and it increases with Z of the attenuating medium.

N/Z curve (Ref: Glasstone for the curve)– another measure of nuclear stability.

• Nuclides on this curve are stable. Nuclear forces for p-p, n-p & n-n are nearly equal.
However as the size of the nuclear increases, the electrostatic interaction between p-p
increases as per Z2 . This explains the typical shape of N-Z curve.

• Nuclides containing magic no. (2,8,20,50,82,126) of protons or neutrons are

exceptionally stable. e.g – O-16. The exceptional stability of these nuclides is due to
completed shells for these.
• Nuclides that are unstable would be radioactive or would decay by spontaneous
fission.
• When instability is due to high A value, alpha particle is released or by beta decay
which happens as follows:

n --> p + e-
• Sometimes, nucleus emits neutrons to increase the stability or simply gamma
radiation. Gamma radiation is identical to X-rays except the origin is from the nucleus
for gamma radiation. X-rays are formed when electrons decelerate in an electric field.

Radioactivity :

• Few nuclides are unstable and decay by emitting alpha, beta, gamma or neutron. This
phenomena is called radioactivity.
• Unit of radioactivity is Bq or dps, 1 Ci = 3.7 x 10
10
Bq
• Governed by exponential decay law:

N = No e-λtt , where λt is the decay constant

• half life t1/2 = 0.693/ λt

 • After 7 half lives, a radionuclide decays to less than 1% of the initial value.
• For a radioactive decay series,

λtANA = λtBNB = λtCNC = ...... assuming the original parent is long

lived

From above, it is clear that the quantity of a particular radionuclide in a decay chain
mixture will be proportional to its half-life.

Neutron Interaction with matter -

Neutron production:

They can be produced by (α, n) reactions with low Z materials:

Be-9 + α --> C-12 + n

• α emitters could be Po-210, Ra-226, Pu-239, Am-241

• neutron flux will depend on the half-life of the emitter. Am-241 is a promising emitter
for lab sources since it is a weak gamma emitter.
• The neutrons are polyenergetic

Neutrons can also be produced by (γ, n) reactions which is called photoneutron sources:

• Deuterium (BE= 2.2 MeV) or Be (BE= 1.6 MeV) is used as a target

• When photons have more energy than BE of the targets, neutrons are emitted with the
difference in energy
• The neutrons are monoenergetic

Spontaneous fission : Cf -252 (half life = 2.63 y) is spontaneous fission neutron source

Neutron Absorption -

• Mechanism is by neutron capture to form a compound nucleus

• He-4, Zr-92 show very little tendency to capture neutrons because of magic number
concept
• (n, α) and (n, p) reactions are rare, but possible. With slow neutrons the following
reactions occur:
1. Li-6 + n --> H-3 + α (Useful in H-bomb)
2. B-10 + n --> Li-7 + α (Used in reactor control)

• With fast neutrons, the interactions are even rarer other than fission. Notable reaction
is:
1. O-16 + n --> N-16 + H

Decay product of N-16 is O-16. N-16 is a hard gamma emitter (6 MeV) with a half life of 7
seconds. This happens when you use air as a coolant as in the case of control systems.
Inelastic scattering: Happens only at high neutron energies. With H only elastic scattering
can occur. With O-16, the energy is > 6MeV. Magic nuclei heavy elements behave as light
nuclei.

Elastic scattering: Possible with neutrons of all energies and with all nuclei.

Neutron reactions :

• 3 general categories: Scattering, capture & fission

• scattering is exchange of energy between neutron and nucleus. It could be elastic
(with no loss of KE of neutrons) or inelastic.
• A capture reaction can lead to the absorption of the neutron and an eventual release of
gamma radiation and is thus called (n, γ) or radiative capture or simply capture
reaction. This happens more readily with thermal neutrons.
• A neutron capture could lead to one or more beta decays:
U-238 --> U-239 --> Np-239 --> Pu-239
• A neutron capture could release an alpha particle called (n, α) reaction:

Fast neutrons – Fission neutron energies are of the order of a few MeV and these are called
fast neutrons.

Thermal neutrons – Fast neutrons when equilibrated with a “moderator” (which is a material
containing low Z nuclides) lose their energy by inelastic scattering. Such neutrons would be
in thermal equilibrium with the moderator with energy less than 0.025 eV at RT. They are
called thermal neutrons.

Cross Section -

• A measure of the probability of a neutron-nuclear interaction. Is a property of the

nucleus and energy of the neutron
• Measured in barns or 10-28 m2 / nucleus
• Effective area per single nucleus for the given reaction
• Macroscopic cross section Σ = Nσ
• It is experimentally determined by the transmission method:

I = Io e-Σx

• Cross section reduces with neutron energy in a characteristic manner. For slow
neutrons, the cross section decreases with increasing neutron energy. At an
intermediate level (0.1 – 1000 eV), cross section peaks will be found called resonance
peaks. At a still higher energy beyond this region cross section falls once again
steadily. Resonance peaks are due to existence of quantum nuclear levels for the
resonance energies.

Neutron flux -

It is defined as the product of n and v, n is no. of neutrons per m3 and v is the velocity of the
neutrons.
Binding Energy per nucleon –

BE/A = 931 * Δm
-----------
A

where Δm is the mass defect

This is an indication of nuclear stability. Fission or fusion of nuclides will occur in order to
maximize this parameter.

Liquid drop fission model -

• A nucleus resembles a drop of liquid. Inasmuch as, all nucleons interact in a similar
way with each other.
• A neutron provides a force to this liquid drop which elongates accordingly into an
ellipsoid. When the surface energy exceeds the volume energy, the drop will
transform into a dumbbell shape and divide into two fission products
• The excess energy which the compound nucleus must have to permit it to reach a
dumb-bell shape is called the critical energy for fission. When the binding energy per
nucleon exceeds the critical energy, fission will occur. In case of fissionable nuclides,
the BE/A is less than critical energy by ~1 MeV. Therefore, this much energy is
required to cause fission.

Fission neutrons -

fission neutrons could be prompt (a product of fission) or delayed (from the decay of fission
products) neutrons. Former constitutes more than 99% of the neutrons. Delayed neutrons are
important for reactor control. Delayed neutrons occur mostly due to decay of Br-87 & I-137.

• η = average no. of neutrons liberated per neutron absorbed in the fissile material
• U-233 has the highest η value for slow neutrons
• η increases with increasing neutron energy
• Proportion of non-fission reactions reduces with neutron energies.
• For breeding η must be at least greater than 2.15 : 1 neutron is required for fission, 1
neutron is required for breeding and 0.15 neutrons will be lost in parasitic capture and
leakage. This happens with U-233 in the thermal spectrum or with all fissiles in the
fast spectrum.
• ηfuel for natural U is 1.4 and it increases to ~2.0 with a 5% enrichment of U-235. Thus,
power reactors are not enriched beyond this point.

Critical Mass – The minimum mass of a nuclear material that is adequate to sustain a chain
reaction by fission is called critical mass. Natural uranium alone cannot sustain a chain
reaction.

In a critical condition, just as many neutrons are produced by fission as are lost by
absorption or leakage from the system in a given time.
kinf = Rate of neutron production
--------------------------------
Rate of neutron absorption

keff = Rate of neutron production

------------------------------------------------------
Rate of neutron absorption+ Rate of leakage

keff = 1 for a critical reactor.

Four factor formula -

kinf = ηεpf pf

where η = no. of neutrons produced per neutron absorbed

εpf = fast fission factor
p=resonance escape probability
f = thermal utilization factor

• A homogeneous mixture of nat. U and graphite cannot become critical because

calculated quantity of kinf is less than 1
• Water moderated nat. U reactors can never become critical because k inf is less than 1.
This is the reason for enriching them
• εpf tends to be lower for homogeneous systems compared to heterogeneous systems.
Also p tends to be higher

Reactor – A device in which nuclear energy is released in a controlled manner. Most of the
energy appears as heat which is used to generate steam which drives a turbine-generator in
order to generate electricity. It consists of a core in which fission is sustained. It might
consist of a moderator to slow the neutrons by elastic scattering. Moderators are low Z
materials like water, D2O, graphite, Li, Be, BeO. Core is surrounded by a reflector which is
usually a high Z material to back-scatter neutrons into the core. Purpose of the reflector is to
reduce the critical mass of the core. Coolant is provided to remove the heat from the core.

• In fast reactors, there is no moderator. Liquid Na or organic compounds are used to

cool the reactor. The reflector (here called the blanket) contains a fertile material that
is capable of producing a fissile by neutron capture.

• A breeder reactor is one where the generation of the fissile from a fertile exceeds the
consumption of fissile. A true breeder generates the same fissile as it consumes. e.g, a
breeder based on U-238 fertile & Pu-239 fissile will be a true breeder.

• The higher the steam temperature, the greater is the thermal efficiency of the reactor.
Conditions in most thermal reactors are such that the steam temperatures are lower
 than modern fossil fuel power plants. Thus, thermal efficiency of reactors is ~33%
while a fossil fuel power plant is ~40%.

• Practically, the reactor power is limited by Engineering materials available for the
reactor construction. There is no limit to the available power from a reactor.

• Reactor control & power control is made possible by controlling the neutron density
(or neutron flux) in the reactor.

• The main advantage of the thermal reactor vs. The fast reactor is that it offers a wide
flexibility in terms of design possibilities. But in thermal reactor there is a large
probability of non-fission reactions due to slow neutron spectrum. Hence it is difficult
to design a thermal breeder reactor.

• Most commercial reactors only utilize 0.5% of initial uranium to generate energy.
Only with the breeding concept the uranium utilization could be improved
substantially so that energy could be derived for hundreds of years to come.

PWR :
• Pressure vessel, 15.5 MPa water pressure, To = 329 C
• 200 pin square fuel assemblies, square array.
• Control rods are B4C in SS tubes, top loaded control rods
• Reactor core is surrounded by a steel shroud
• 4 steam generators

HTGR :

• Graphite moderated, He cooled

• Fuel is UC with a coating of PyC, SiC, PyC. Outermost PyC (produced at high temp)
acts as cladding. Innermost PyC (low temp) is porous and can accommodate fission
products
• To = 513 C, thermal efficiency is ~40%

Fast reactors

• Fuel is MOX fuel, 80-85 % UO2 & 15-20% PuO2

• Na cooled
• thermal efficiency is ~40%

Xe poisoning

The most important fission product poison is Xe-135 because of the fairly large cross section
(3 x 106 barns) for thermal neutrons. It mainly originates from the decay chain of Te-135:

Te-135 --> I -135 --> Xe-135

Xe-135 has a shorter half-life compared to I-135, therefore Xe-135 starts building up after
shutdown. None of the Xe-135 is lost by neutron capture. Xe-135 value during shutdown
condition will be typically higher than when the reactor is operating. Excess reactivity has to
be available in order to override the Xe poisoning effect.

Temperature effect of reactivity -

If keff were to increase with temperature, it is called positive temperature coefficient of

reactivity. The neutron density would increase with temperature and so would fission which
in turn would further increase the temperature. This is an unstable situation. Thus, a negative
temperature coefficient of reactivity is thus, a desirable feature for the reactor stability and
operational safety

As a consequence of the Doppler effect, the resonance peaks are broadened and the
neutron absorption in the resonance region increases with temperature. Thus, the fuel should
contain nuclides that should have well separated resonance peaks. (p in the four factor
formula decreases with increasing temperature).

Control Rods -

• Reactor control systems have two operational functions: regulation and shutdown.
• Regulating rods also provide some degree of shim control, which is long term control
of reactivity resulting from fuel burnup and accumulation of fission product poisons.
Burnable poisons like B or Gd are added to provide this function. In PWR, shim
control is achieved by adding boric acid to moderator.
• Control system must have the capability for rapid shutdown during an emergency.
Nuclear Engineering Concepts – Various sources

SNM: Special Nuclear Materials - USNRC terminology

• Categorization for strategic fissiles like U-235, Pu-239, U-233
• Categories I, II & III
• Cat. I : >2kg Pu-239
• Cat. II : 0.5-2 kg Pu-239
• Cat. III: 0.015 - 0.5 kg Pu-239

Radioactivity: Discovered by Henri Becquerel.

1 Bq = 1 dps
1 Ci = 3.7 x 1010 Bq

An unstable nucleus (as defined by N-Z curve) can attain relative stability by losing an alpha
particle, a beta particle (an electron) or a neutron or a gamma photon. The daughter nucleus
may also be unstable and decay and could generate a decay chain until a stable isotope is
produced.

Fissile: Nuclides that can sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction with thermal & fast
neutrons. e.g, U-233, U-235 & Pu-239

• Nuclides with odd A, even Z and 90< Z <100 are fissile

Q: Why nuclides with odd A, even Z are fissile?

Fissionable: Nuclides that can sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction with only fast
neutrons. e.g, U-238

Q: Is Th-232 fissionable ?
Q: How much energy (in percent) is derived from fast fission of U-238 in FBR?

Moderator: Thermalisation of neutrons to an energy of 0.025 eV is achieved using a

moderator. Prominent moderators are H2O, D2O, Be & graphite. Light water although is very
efficient is slowing down neutrons is not used to moderate nat. U fuelled reactors. D2O or
Graphite could be used. This is because for H2O, sa = 0.3 b which is very high compared to
D2O (sa = 0.0005 b) or graphite (sa = 0.003 b).

Cladding: Essential properties for cladding are:

• Low neutron absorption cross section

• High creep strength at max coolant temp
• Good chemical compatibility with coolant and fuel

Normally Zr-2, Zr-4, Zr-1%Nb, Magnox are used as cladding for thermal reactors. For fast
reactors SS is used for cladding, although its absorption cross section is high (sa = 2.7 b)
because of better creep strength and coolant compatibility with liquid Na at high temp (550
C).

Fertile material: Nuclides that transmute into fissile on neutron capture. The process of
converting fertile material into fissile in a reactor in such a manner as to generate more fissile
than what is consumed is called breeding Blankets are provided in FBR for breeding Pu-239
or U-233 by the following reaction:

Th-232 --> U-233

U-238 --> Pu-239

Q: Is breeding possible with slow neutrons in a thermal reactor?

Radioisotope battery: Radioactive decay heat is used to generate electricity using

thermocouples. Tritium, Pu-238 (half life of 88 y), Sr-90, Tc-98, Ni-63 & Cm-244 are used.
In order to preserve electronics in deep space, Pu-238 RHU (radioisotope heater units)
producing 1 W for decades.

Pu-238 pacemakers are used in pacemakers and in satellites. A gm of Pu-238 produces

0.55W of decay heat. this fact is utilized to produce reliable and compact batteries for critical
applications. Systems ranging from 0.2W to 30W of power are produced using the isotope.

LTBT: (Limited test ban treaty, 1963 ) Signatories (USA, Russia, UK, France) are not
permitted to test nuclear weapons above ground/under-water.

Fission: Nuclei that can undergo fission are neutron rich (as defined by N-Z curve) . Initial
fission products will also be therefore neutron rich. Then the neutrons in these products will
be transformed by a beta decay as follows:
n --> p + e-
A few decay products might release neutrons also which are called delayed neutrons. This is
to distinguish from “prompt” neutrons which are generated from the depicted fission reaction:

U-235 + n --> A + B + 2-3 n +200 MeV

Fission products (FPs) have a relatively short half life (usually <100 y). (Exceptions to this
rule are Tc-99, Cs-137 & Sr-90 which have a much longer half life). This contrasts with
transuranics (TRUs) which have a half life of between 100 -100000 years. Transuranics are
actinides like Am, Cm etc. that provide long lasting radioactivity to nuclear wastes. A fast
reactor can consume or “burn” these actinides efficiently. For U-235, the predominant FPs are
isotopes of I, Cs, Sr, Xe & Ba. after 3 years the largest share of radioactivity is from Cs-137,
Sr-90 & Tc-99. After a few hundred years the max share will be from transuranics (Am, Cm).
Tc-99 (t1/2-220,000 y) & I-129 (t1/2-17 m y) dominates radioactivity after a few thousand
years. Pu-239 (t1/2-24,000 y) & Np-237 (t1/2-2 m y) are the most troublesome TRU.

Fission products can be statistically predicted using fission product yield curve. Majority of
the fission products lie in 2 peaks. One peak occurs near Sr and the other at Te. The yield
curve is symmetric for fast fission.

Some fission products like Xe-135 have high neutron absorption cross section. These
products “poison” a reactor by parasitic capture reactions. Nuclear Fuel burnup is limited by
the accumulation of these poisons.

Activation product cannot be formed in a nuclear explosion. Cs-134 is formed by the

activation of Cs-133. No Cs-134 can be directly formed by nuclear fission because Xe-134 is
stable. Thus, an assay of Cs-134 gives an indication whether the fallout is from a nuclear
explosion or a reactor.

Cs-137 & Sr-90 are found at a far of location from the fuel because they are decay products
from Xe-137 & Kr-90 by beta decay.

Short lived isotopes of Iodine (I-131- half life of 8 d, etc.) are particularly dangerous during a
nuclear fallout. Radioiodine accumulates at the thyroid leading to thyroiditis, hypothyroidism
or thyroid cancer. You can block the thyroid by taking the recommended dose of KI ( 4 drops
of sat. KI solution for an adult).

Chernobyl accident released a massive dose of Cs-137 which accumulated in top-soil. The
best remedy against this fallout is deep ploughing. Another remedy is to use potash fertilizers.
Yet another remedy is to feed animals with Prussian blue. Cs-137 which is water soluble is
rapidly excreted by urine in a matter of a few months. But treatment with Prussian blue
significantly shortens the biological half life.
Heat from the fission reaction is because of:

1. KE of fission products
2. absorption of gamma rays
3. radioactive decay heat
Recent research has revealed that the fallout from Tc & I is not as serious as postulated
because of the formation of adhering layers of reaction products due to reaction of these with
metal surfaces. Otherwise these are water soluble and mobile components of a nuclear waste.

Nuclear Reactors:

Reactor History: Fermi discovered fission in 1934. He built a team as part of the Manhattan
project to build the Chicago Pile-1 below Univ. of Chicago grounds. 400 t of graphite were
piled along with 58 t of Uranium oxide and 6 tons of U metal.

X-10 pile was the 2nd reactor by ORNL.

EBR-1 (Idaho) was the 1st reactor to generate electricity. It lit 4 light bulbs and later
the entire campus.

Natural reactors: In Okla, Gabon (West Africa), evidence was found for nuclear reaction in a
U ore deposit. Conditions existed for a sustained chain reaction to take place for thousands of
years. This is cited for regulatory support of US geological repositories.

Thermal reactors : Use a moderator to thermalise neutrons in order to take advantage of the
higher cross section for thermal spectrum. LWRs, CANDU, RBMK, Magnox, HTGR are
examples of thermal reactors.

RBMK: - Chernobyl type reactor, Graphite moderated, BWRs, Pr tube concept, LW coolant,
en-UO2 fuel (1.5-2% U enrichment) - Steam generated in Pr tube is used to run a turbine.
Vertical reactor unlike

Gas Cooled reactor -

• CO2 cooled, graphite moderated. en-UO2 fuel (1.2-2.3% enrichment), SS clad

• To = 650C, coolant Pr = 40 atm
• Only operated in UK

Advanced gas reactors (AGRs) - Graphite moderated, He is used as coolant in AGR

Disadvantages of GCRs:

Magnox Reactor -

• nat. U metal as fuel and Magnox alloy as cladding, CO2 cooled, graphite moderated.
BU ~3000 MWd/te
• Magnox alloy has better neutron economy compared to Zr-2
• Disadvantages:
• Mg alloy limits the max temp of operation.
• Magnox alloy reacts with water so fuel can’t be stored underwater for cooling after
service. Remote handling of fuel is required because of this.
• Low volumetric power density - 1% of an LWR
• Coolant (CO2) reacts with moderator (C)
HTGR -

• Uses TRISO fuel, Graphite moderated, He cooled,

• Fuel is (Th,U)C2
3. U enrichment = 20-90%
4. To = 740 C, Tin =250 coolant pr = 50 atm
5. only 2 reactors in USA & Germany
6. Thermal efficiency is very high
7. Passive safety because of inherent safety features

Fast reactor: - In fast reactors, breeding ratio is high because of high eta value in the fast
spectrum. Enrichment is much higher in fast reactor to compensate for the low fission cross
section in the fast spectrum.

2. Na cooled, SS clad
3. To = 620 C, Pr = 3 atm

Blanket serves the following purpose:

1) For breeding a fissile

2) As a reflector of neutrons
3) Flattens the flux
4) Upto 10% of the power is generated in the blanket

Molten Salt reactor : Gen IV reactor concept.

• Concept by ORNL in the 60s.

• 8 MWt reactor
• BR =1.05
• Graphite rod moderator
• Be & Li fluorides in salt along with ThF4.
• Uses ThF4 as fuel in liquid form thereby eliminating the need for fuel fabrication
• Reprocessing could be integrated with the reactor to remove Pa-231
• Negative temp coeff of reactivity due to liquid fuel expansion
• Significantly a small quantity of TRUs are produced.

Q: Molten salt reactor is non-proliferative. Why?

A: Reactor runs continuously and no shutdown is required for refueling. U-233 is not in solid
form. Access to U-233 is not available since it is inside. All Th-232 & U-233 is consumed
and fission products are mostly gaseous at operating temperatures.

Reactivity

It is a deflection of the reactor from the critical state. It is a measure of the change in neutron
multiplication. It is adjusted by using the reactor control system.

ρ = (k-1)/k
Fraction of delayed neutrons ( β))

The fraction of delayed neutrons is called β). Usually, it is less than 1%.

Temp coefficient of reactivity

Temp coefficient of reactivity is a measure of how much the reactivity will change when
temperature in the moderator or coolant changes. A reactor with a positive temperature
coefficient of reactivity implies that with an increase in temperature in the reactor, the
reactivity will increase which will serve as a positive feedback and make the system unstable.
It is desirable to have a negative temperature coefficient of reactivity.

Temperature coefficient of reactivity can be made by adding materials that can broaden the
resonance absorption cross section region by Doppler broadening. Thus, U238 or Gd when
added to the fuel will absorb more neutrons by capture reactions due to this effect and the
extent of fission reduces.

Void coefficient of reactivity:

Void coefficient of reactivity is a measure of how much the reactivity will change when voids
(typically steam bubbles) are created in the moderator or coolant. for PHWR this factor is
slightly positive and for graphite moderated reactors, this factor is zero. Voids are also formed
during LOCA (loss of coolant accident).

A positive void coefficient means that in case of coolant boiling voids, are created and
reactivity increases because coolant which was absorbing neutrons was lost to some extent.

PHWRs have slightly positive void coefficients. Chernobyl reactor had a large positive void
coefficient which caused the disaster. Later on, the void coefficients of all Russian reactors
were reduced drastically. Fast reactors have positive void coefficient. LWRs where coolant &
moderator are one, LOCA means loss of moderator. Thus, they have negative void
coefficient. For gas reactors, void coefficient is not an issue. They could be designed in such
a way that core meltdown does not take place in case of coolant loss.

LOCA – Loss of coolant accident

Coolant is provided in a reactor to remove the heat from a reactor during operation and
shutdown condition. Passive safety maybe present in the reactor against LOCA. Void
coefficient should be negative for passive safety. Pebble bed reactor passively cools down on
LOCA.

ECCS (emergency core cooling system) exists specifically to address LOCA. Even under a
shutdown condition, the reactor generates decay heat due to radioactive decay. If ECCS fails,
the decay heat is enough to cause a core meltdown.
Passive safety in components

Passive nuclear safety is a safety feature of a nuclear reactor that does not require operator
actions or electronic feedback in order to shut down safely in the event of a particular type of
emergency (usually overheating resulting from LOCA). Passively safe components of safety
systems will get actuated when the system's LCO's (Limiting operating conditions) are
exceeded. The actuating parameters could be pressure differentials, gravity, natural
convection or natural response of materials to high temperatures. Passivity is not the same as
reliability or availability.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) classifies the degree of "passive safety" of
components from category A to D depending on what the system does not make use of:
1. no moving working fluid
2. no moving mechanical part
3. no signal inputs of 'intelligence'
4. no external power input or forces
Category 1+2+3+4 is cladding and reactor containment. SCRAM is category D passive
safety.
Pool type of FBR is inherently safer compared to loop type because core is immersed in a
pool liquid Na. It acts as heat sink for removal of decay heat. Also, when coolant heats up, the
metallic fuel & clad will expand which will cause neutrons to leak and no longer sustain
fission chain.
Molten salt reactor is inherently safer because LOCA means loss of fuel which can only
sustain criticality in a graphite reflector.

Specific power:

• When U metal is used as fuel, the rod dia is ~30 mm. Fuel centreline temperature (Tc
<600 C) to prevent phase transition. specific power is 5 MWt/ Te .
• When UO2 is the fuel, pellet (~ 12 mm dia x 15 mm height ).Tc ~ 1400 C. Specific
power is 20 MWt/ Te
• In a fast reactor, pellet dia ~ 5 mm. Specific power is 200 MWt/Te

Conversion Ratio:

The ratio of fissile isotope produced to consumed in a reactor is called conversion ratio.
These ratios in various reactors are as follows:

• 0.55 for LWR

• 0.7 for PHWR
• 0.9 for HTGR
• 1.25 for French FBR using oxide fuel
• 1.0 for AHWR
• 1.4 for FBR using metallic fuel
For fast reactors, the conversion ratio exceeds 1.0 and therefore they are called breeders.

Radioactive Waste:

Radioactive wastes could be generated by coal ash, oil fields and uranium mining activity.

For short lived nuclear wastes, the general approach is to segregate and store. Low &
intermediate level wastes are sent for near surface disposal. And long lived isotopes require
deep geological repositories.

Some countries like USA,Canada do not reprocess nuclear fuel due to proliferation risk.
Reprocessing generates Pu which could be diverted to a clandestine weapons program. In
these countries they are also opposed to deep geological repositories because of the belief that
some day the repository could become a Pu mine.

Some countries like India, France, UK & Japan believe in reprocessing. Conventionally this
this done using TBP solvent extraction (SX) of Pu & U in the form of Purex. UREX is only
selective extraction of Uranium. TRUEX process extracts TRUs (Am/Cm) by adding CMPO
to TBP. Diamides could be used to substitute CMPO/TBP in TRUEX which is called
DIAMEX process. Major advantage is that no solid waste is generated when phosphatic
organics are burned.

The first cycle Purex raffinate is calcined to evaporate water and for denitration. The calcine
is mixed with borosilicate/phosphate glass pieces and melted. On cooling and solidification,
the nuclear waste gets vitrified in the glass matrix.

Australia uses a process called synrock (Ba-Al titanates, Ca-Zr titanates) for immobilization
of nuclear waste.

Several approaches to radioactive wastes are:

1)segregate & store

2)dilute & disperse
2) Concentrate & ----
3)Remix & return

FBR, ADSS & fusion reactor could burn actinides. Molten salt reactor does not generate any
TRUs.

Burning Minor actinides:

Am-241 as part of the fuel has been proposed in IFR (Integral Fast reactor). The problem is
with fuel fabrication/back end processing of such a fuel, requiring remote handling.

Cm when irradiated with neutrons forms Cf which is an even stronger neutron source. Cm
(with a half life of 18 y) could be left to decay into Pu-240 which could be used as a fuel in
an FBR.
Ratio of fission to capture cross section flavors fast neutrons. With sufficiently high neutron
energies, it should be possible to burn Cm without generate transcuriums. This would be
possible in an ADSS.

An ADSS uses a Pb spallation target on which an accelerated beam of protons (1.6 GeV) or
electrons are impinged to generate a neutron/proton beam (200 MeV energy). This
neutron/proton beam could be use to provide the required incremental criticality to a sub-
critical reactor system. The problem with ADSS is that the accelerator does not provide a
stable availability as a reactor. So the fuel will see lot of thermal cycling which it has to
withstand. Another problem is more transuranics could be bred from the matrix. to solve this
problem, an inert matrix of ZrO2 has been proposed. BARC has proposed to develop a 1
GeV, 30 mA proton accelerator (the key component in ADSS). A large no. of spallation
neutrons (25-30 neutrons) are expected per proton. ADSS can be used as an energy amplifier
or to tailor-make radioisotopes.

According to a recent MIT study, 2-3 fusion reactors (similar to ITER) can efficiently
incinerate all the TRUs that are presently generated

Purex:

• Objective of the process is to quantitatively recover Pu & U with high

decontamination factor with respect to impurities.
• fuel elements are chopped to 5cm length and then leached with nitric acid. This is
called chop-leach process
• Further TBP SX of U(VI) & Pu(IV) is carried out
• For scrubbing Pu, it is reduced by Ferrous sulphamate or U(IV)-hydrazine solution
• U purification is done by another TBP-nitrate process and Pu purification is done by
anionic resin IX.

Thorex:

• A long cooling period (1-2 y) is required for reprocessing Th fuels for decaying Pa-
233. Chop-leaching is done in hot cells where it is dissolved in HNO3 (with small
HF)
• this is followed by TBP SX to separate Th & U-233
• Because of Th-228 contamination, it cant be reused for 10 years.

Radioisotopes:

Co-60 (half life = 6.3 y) - Brachytherapy & Radiotherapy

Cs-137 (half life = 30 y) - Brachytherapy & Radiotherapy
I-131 (half life = 8 d) - Thyroid cancer
Sr-89 (half life = 52 d) - Bone cancer
Y-90 (half life = 2.7 d) - blood cancer

Radioisotopes have medical & industrial applications.

Isotopic separation:
All commercial isotopic separation use successive stages called cascades to enrich a required
isotope. The tailings from one stage is returned back to the previous stage. Separation factor
in a single stage of a cascade is the ratio of the square root of the molecular wt. Alternative to
isotopic separation is production of the isotope in the pure form by irradiation of a suitable
target. (e.g, Generation of Pu-238 by irradiating U-238 with deuterons)

Only 3 elements have been enriched on a commercial scale:

U isotopes, H isotopes and Li-6 (for thermonuclear fusion weapons)

Nuclear Fuel:

Thermal conductivity and burnup are 2 imp fuel characteristics. Normal discharge burnup of
PHWR fuel is 7000 MWd/TeU.

UOX: ADU is calcined to U3O8 which is reduced by H2/Ar at 700 C to form UO2 or UOX.
UO2 is mixed with organic binder, pressed into pellets and sintered at a higher temp in Ar/H2
atmosphere.

Conductivity of UOX is low and it decreases with increasing temperature unlike metals.

MOX: Is a blend of PuO2 and UO2. Is an alternative to LEU fuel used in LWRs. It is one of
the methods of disposing Pu.

TRIGA: High leakage core with U-Zr-H fuel. Negative temp coeff of reactivity. Many US
research reactors use this fuel.

Actinite fuel: U-Zr-Pu with minor actinides.

UN:

• UO2 + 2C + 1/2N2 --> UN + CO

• higher mp, thermal conductivity than UOX, UC.
• Non pyrophoric
• Disadv is N-14 cannot be used because of formation of C-14 by (n,p) reaction. N-15
has to be used making it very expensive.

UC:
• higher density & mp, higher U at.% of UOX
• twice the thermal conductivity of UOX.
• Na or He bonding is used. Na bonded carbide fuel have reported failures at high
burnup (>150,000 MWD/Te)
• With high burnups, PCCI has been observed because C/M reduces with burnup.
Carbide fuel is initially hyperstoichiometric to prevent metallic phase formation. With
burnup, C/M reduces and a low melting (U,Pu) alloy phase forms which can react
with clad materials to form low melting eutectics. This could be one of the life-
limiting mechanisms. Other life limiting factor is the reduction of ductility of clad due
to void swelling and creep.
 • Higher swelling (compared to MOX) due to retention of fission products in the NaCl
structure of the carbide fuel.
• Disadv is pyrophoric and more no. of steps for fuel fabrication. Also high Pu losses
during fabrication due to high vapor pressure.
• Sesquicarbide (U2C3) and dicarbide (UC2) are not considered due to their interaction
with cladding alloys like SS
• dicarbide is a fuel for HTGR as TRISO fuel

Molten salts: Mixture of U-Th-Be-Li fluorides. Reactor can operate at >700 C as mp of the
salts is 1400C. U is nat. U. No fuel fabrication is required. Pa-233 is generated which has to
be extracted to improve the neutron economy (Pa-233 --> Pa-234--> U-234 -->U-233). This
step makes the neutron economy similar to an FBR. No transuranics are generated.

Reactor fuels:

CIRUS fuel -
• ~35 mm dia, 3.1 m length rod U metal fuel by hot rolling
• cladding is finned Al tube that is tight fitted to the U rod
• A second Al tube covers the finned Al tube and acts as a coolant channel.
• CIRUS uses 192 such fuel elements

PWR bundles - 14 pins x 14 pins to 17 pins x 17 pins square matrix

clad tubes are 1 cm dia
~4 m long bundles
control rods are inserted from top directly into bundle.
Filled with pressurised He to decrease PC Interaction

PHWR bundle - 37 pin fuel assembly

0.5 m length, 10 cm overall dia
20 kg per bundle

MOX fuel - Fuel residence time in LWR is typically 3 years at the end of which Pu is
produced. This Pu (consisting of 70%Pu-239/241 & reminder mostly Pu-240) can be recyled
back in the form of MOX fuel. Recycling of Pu is not done more than once because of the
enrichment of P-240. MOX or Mixed oxide is normally a blend of PuO2 and UO2. The
Uranium could come from recycling (and subsequent re-enrichment). The re-enrichment level
has to be slightly higher for recycled U to compensate for greater quantity of U-236. Pu-239
in the reactor behaves more or less like U-235 with a fission cross slightly higher and roughly
producing same energy. Introduction of MOX calls for re-licensing of a reactor. In an LWR a
max of 30-50% MOX could be used but CANDU can use 100% MOX without any reactor
modification. MOX fuel can contain 0.5-3% of Pu.

Operating characteristics of a reactor with MOX will differ:

• Thermal conductivity is lower for MOX so fuel temp will be higher

• Pu isotopes absorb more neutrons than U, control systems have to be modified.
Pu (from Purex) has to be fabricated as fast as possible to avoid decay of Pu-241 (half life
~14 years) to Am-241 (which is highly radioactive with daughter products being gamma
emitters). After 5 years in storage the Am content increases to 3% which makes it unsuitable
for handling.

Curium maybe added to MOX before loading it in a fast reactor to incinerate the same. Work
with Cm is much harder than Am because Cm is a neutron emitter. Also neutron irradiation of
Cm generates Californium which is a still stronger neutron emitter.

Q: Why it is more advisable to reserve all the Pu/MOX for a fast reactor?

A: Ratio of fission to capture cross section is higher for fast neutrons for almost all actinides
including Pu. A fast reactor uses Pu much more efficiently.

Q: Does the fast reactor generate less waste?

Ratio of fission to capture cross section is higher for fast neutrons for almost all actinides
including U-238. All actinides including TRU (transuranics) are a fuel for a fast reactor.

TRISO fuel - UOX or UC micro fuel particles in a graphite block. Microfuel particles are
coated with isotropic materials - Porous carbon, Pyrolytic carbon, SiC and again Pyrolytic
carbon. They are designed to withstand differential thermal stresses and fission gas pressure.
SiC will retain fission gases. The fuel can withstand 1600 C and more and is supposed to
maintain integrity under worst case scenarios.

Cermet fuel - UOX in metal matrix. Probably US Navy uses this type of fuel.

Fusion fuels - Tritium, deuterium and He-3

Metallic fuel – Metal fuel has advantage of higher fissile density and thermal conductivity. U-
Pu alloy cannot be used because of low mp. Zr when added increases the solidus temperature
and makes it possible for higher operating temp of the reactor. U-19Pu-10Zr is a possible
candidate. Problem with metal fuels is high swelling. For this smear density is reduced to
75%. High porosity in the fuel allows the gas bubbles to intersect easily causing FGR before
the Pellet/Clad gap is closed by swelling. PCMI has not been observed with low smear
density fuels. Another problem with metallic fuels is PCCI.

Uranium:

• 6 natural isotopes - 232 to 238 (no 237). [Artificially 217 - 242]

• Half-life : U238 - 4.5 x 109 y

U235 - 0.7 x 109 y
U234 - 245,000 y
U232 - 89 y

• Phase changes
 660 760
a → b → g
(orthorhombic) (tetragonal) (bcc)

• Density 19.1 g/cc (slightly less than Au/W)

• 1 kg of U-235 is energy equivalent to 3000 tons of coal
• World production - 40000 tons/y
• Major producers -Australia, Kazakhstan, Niger, Russia, Namibia

Natural U: Contains following 3 isotopes

U-235: 0.72%
U-234: 0.006%
U-238: rest

Reprocessed U: Obtained from the Purex processing of PWR/BWR fuel. Is basically SEU
with a contamination of U-236 which is neutron poison. Could be a CANDU fuel.

Also Np-237 produced from capture of neutron by U-236 is a mobile/troublesome isotope for
geological waste repositories.

U Enrichment:

SEU - 0.9- 2% U-235 - used to replace NU in CANDU reactors

PWR/BWR - 3-5%
LEU- 2-19.75%
HEU - >20%
weapons grade >85%

UO2 + 4HF = UF4 + 2 H2O (500oC)

UF4 + F2 = UF6 (350oC)

• UF6 is solid at RT and sublimes to a gas easily at 60 C.

• Gaseous diffusion: (Gen 1) - UF6 gas is driven through successive gas membranes
(Ag-Zn) and differential diffusion rate is the principle. separation factor= 1.005
• Gas centrifuge (Gen 2) - ~1% difference in molecular wt between isotopes is used.
Centrifugal force is used to drive the the enrichment process into heavy & light
fractions. Separation factor = 1.3
• SILEX (Gen 3) : Laser excitation of U-235 for breaking the UF 6 bond and precipitate
U-235 selectively.

Q: Why only Fluoride isotope is used for enrichment?

Depleted U: Waste from U enrichment facility

• U-235 less than 0.2-0.3%

• Used as blanket materials in FBR/AHWR
• Projectiles, Tank Armor plates
• Shielding : 60% more density than Pb. so 5 times better shield for gamma.
 • Inertial guidance systems & gyroscopic compasses

U-233:

Breeding U-233 from Th blankets:

Th-232 (n, g) --> Th-233 (b)-> Pa-233 (b) --> U-233

Main problem with this fuel cycle:

U-233 is a alpha emitter (4.823 MeV) with a half life of 160,000 y. The specific activity is 9.5
mCi/g. In addition, U-232 is associated with U-233. It occurs because of the following decay
chains due to (n,2n) reaction:

U-233 (n,2n) --> U-232

Pa-233 (n,2n) --> Pa-232 (b) --> U-232

U-232 is an alpha emitter (t1/2 - 72 y). Its daughter product is Tl-208 (t 1/2 - 3.1m) which is a
hard gamma emitter. Radiation field will depend on U-232 content. There is a proposal in
BARC to remove U-232 from U-233 by a laser isotopic separation technique called AVLIS
(atomic vapour laser isotopic separation).

Q: How come breeding can be done using a thermal reactor using Th-U233?

U-238:

Fissionable with fast neutrons. But cannot sustain chain reaction even with fast neutrons
because of large scattering cross section (which lowers the neutron energy). Eta = 1.7 is also
low.

A better way to use U-238 is by breeding Pu-239. BN-600 (Russian) is the only commercial
breeder reactor. Machinery could be added to reactors to fuel U-238 near the core for
breeding Pu and removing this charge. For this reason, IAEA often inspects licensed reactors
to guard against proliferation.

U-238 is a “tamper” material for modern nuclear weapons in order to reflect neutrons for the
weapon’s core. It increases the weapon’s yield in a fusion device by fast fission.

Q: For PWR/BWR’s reactor has to take a shutdown for several weeks to facilitate refuelling,
but not CANDU. Is CANDU more proliferative because it is equipped with on-line refueling?

A: CANDU is less proliferative than other commercial reactors because it consumes most of
Pu generated in-situ. Not only this, it has the ability to incinerate other actinides also to some
extent.

Q: FBRs can breed Pu efficiently. Then why are there not as many of them as thermal
reactors?

A: They are more complicated to construct and operate.

Plutonium:

• Was discovered by Seaborg.

• 6 oxidation states (3-7)
• 6 isotopes - 238 to 244 (no 243)
• 6 allotropes
• density ~19.86, mp~640 C
• highly reactive metal. reacts with air and moisture
• Produced by Calciothermic reduction of PuF4 at 1200 C
• Half-life : Pu239 - 24,100 y for alpha
Pu244 - most stable
Pu-240 - 65,700 y for alpha, 1.34 x 1011 y for spont. fission
Pu-238 - 88 y for alpha
• Pu is hard and brittle. Pu machining is difficult because of extensive phase changes
with slight heating. Workability and weld-ability are improved by alloying with Ga or
Al. These stabilize delta phase at RT and makes it soft and ductile. Pu-Al has
stabilized delta phase but with a high neutron field due to (alpha,n) reaction.
• Pu-Zr is a potential nuclear fuel for FBR. Called metallic fuel.
Pu-U could be a metallic fuel for FBR but is highly pyrophoric and corrodes rapidly in air. Ti/
Zr/Mo maybe added to improve the corrosion resistance and reduce pyrophoricity. Mo is best
from corrosion point and Zr from neutron economy point.
• Pu-240 has a significant cross section for spontaneous fission. Its quantity increases in
Pu with burnup. Its quantity should be less than 7% for weapon’s grade Pu. Its
presence makes Pu-239 more proliferation resistant.
• Pu breeding happens as follows:

U-238(n, g) -->U-239 (b) --> Np-239 (b) --> Pu-239

• Pu-238 has excellent decay heat (560 W/kg). Used as a heat source for Radioisotope
thermoelectric generators (RTGs). It has a half life of 88 y. Produced by bombarding
U-238 with deuterons. Isotopic separation is difficult from reactor produced Pu-238.
• Pu-241 decays to Am-241 is highly radioactive (half life - 14 y) and which has high
gamma emitting daughter products.

Pu toxicity: Chemically as toxic as caffeine. Only 0.04% is absorbed when ingested in oxide
form. Biological half life of absorbed Pu is 200 years. Pu is more dangerous in inhaled form.
Risk of lung cancer is high when total equivalent radiation dose for inhaled Pu exceeds 400
mSv.

Body burden must not exceed 0.6 ug for Pu. This is the max quantity that is known to
cause no ham.

PuO2 -

• Prepared from decomposition of oxalate at 500 oC. Density ~11.46, mp ~2400oC, low
thermal conductivity.

PuC -

• Moderates neutrons to a lesser extent, so breeding ratio is high compared to oxide

 • thermal conductivity is higher, mp ~1600

Thorium:

Waste product while mining rare earths. Cost is low and abundance is high. It is a blanket
material for breeding U-233.

Arguments for using Th as a nuclear fuel (as against U) are:

• Greater abundance : India has 25% of world’s Th reserves

• Can breed fissile (U-233) in a thermal reactor
• Superior physical & nuclear properties of Th
• Reduced nuclear waste generation : Only U-232 & Pa-233 (half life 27 days) are
significant which make the fuel fabrication challenging.
• 10-100 times less transuranics are generated
• Enhanced proliferation resistance
•

Challenges for using Th as a nuclear fuel are are:

• U-232 associated with U-233 requires remote handling. Tl-208 is a daughter product
which is a hard gamma source (2.6 MeV, half life =3 min)

Pure Th is very soft & ductile and therefore easily drawn/swaged. Th is slowly attacked by
water and HCl. It dissolved in nitric acid in the presence of a small quantity of fluoride. Th is
an effective radiation shield, although not used as often as DU or Pb.

Reactor safety concepts:

Design Safety

Detection:

• Continuous monitoring of reactor parameters - Temperature, Pressure, neutron flux,

coolant level, coolant flow are continuously monitored. If any parameters exceeds
limiting conditions, the reactor will trip.
• QAP for construction, erection & commissioning

Prevention:

• Defense in depth : successive barriers between radioactive source and

operators/environment. These are cladding, primary coolant boundary & reactor
building.
• Reliable & diverse shutdown system which will operate under normal & abnormal
conditions.
• SCRAM: Rapid insertion of all control rods within the reactor in order to trip the
reactor. Automatic scram is activated on:
a) turbine protection system detects an anomaly
 b) LOOP : Loss of offsite power
c) Neutron monitor trips
d) LOCA : loss of coolant accident
e) LOFW : loss of feed-water
f) Pressure transients in the pressure vessel
• Using once through air to cool reactor structural and shutdown system

Mitigation:

• Emergency core cooling system

• Emergency ventilation system
• Elevated water storage for passive decay heat removal from core whenever primary
coolant pumps are not available
• In the event of failure of all safety systems, the reactor is surrounded by a containment
building which is made of steel lined (1 inch), pre-stressed concrete (1.2-2.4m thick)
designed to seal-off the reactor in any emergency.

Operation Safety

• Only trained, licensed and authorized persons will operate a reactor

• ISI (In-service inspection of critical components)
• Regular surveillance
• Operated as per Standard Operating Procedures and conforming with Limiting
Conditions of Operations (LCOs) in Technical Specifications.
DBA : Design basis accident is the worst postulated accident.

Light Water Reactors:

BWR : Inherently simple design. Boiling is allowed in the core at 75 kg/cm 2 pressure and
285oC. Steam is passed thru turbine/generator to generate electricity. Steam from the turbine
is condensed in the condenser and returned back to the reactor.

Reactor vessel is made of carbon steel with SS internal lining. Control rods operate from
bottom of the pressure vessel using a hydraulic system. Primary coolant water from
condenser enters the reactor core from the top, and moves in the downward direction in the
annular space between “ shroud" & rector vessel and then its direction is reversed by 180 o
within the shroud where it encounters the fuel assembly channels. It becomes steam mixed
with water inside the channels. At the top of the core, there is a steam separator, to separate
steam from the water. Steam is between 12-15% of the water content in the BWR by mass.
Power is controlled by adjustment of control rods. By changing the flowrate within the core
using recirculating pumps, power could be adjusted between 30-100% level. When the flow
rate of re-circulation is low, the amount of steam is high in the water and therefore there are
more “voids” which decreases moderation and therefore decreases the power level.

Reactor is refuelled once in 18 months during shutdown. Control rods are B 4C in SS tubes.
LPS (Liquid poison system) consisting of sodium pentaborate is added to the moderator.

ABWR (1350 MWe) - Advanced BWR. Highly automated system from GE Hitachi . Lower
core damage probability (3 x 10-8)
SBWR (600 MWe)- Simplified BWR. Uses natural convection for internal re-circulation of
moderator. Uses several passive safety features for safe shutdown

Advantages & Disadvantages of BWR :

• Lower operating pressure compared to PWR. RV embrittlement is lower.
• No steam generator - overall cost reduction
• Better ECCS than PWR - USNRC assessment is that core damage probability is lesser
• No boric acid is used. Associated corrosion problems are lower

• Control rods are inserted from below

• Turbine chamber has radioactivity from N-16 (t1/2 - seconds).
• Older Mark I containment is still used

PWR: 3-4 primary coolant loops enter the reactor core to remove the heat. Each loop is
connected to a steam generator (and one pump each). Coolant pressure is higher in PWR,
because of which a smaller core and higher power density is achieved.

Q: Why is the power density of a PHWR much less compared to an LWR ?

PHWR : Uses nat UO2 fuel, D2O moderator & coolant

• Pressure is 145 atm in PT, To = 310 C, boiling not allowed.
• Calandria Vessel - horizontal, Pressure tubes - 306 for 220 MWe &
- 392 for 540 MWe
• Pressure tubes (PT) of Zr-2.5% Nb acts as a coolant channel. Higher strength, creep
resistance and better in-pile corrosion, Hydrogen embrittlement properties for this
material compared with Zr-2
• PT is attached at either end to end fitting by roll expanded joint. End fitting is sealed
with a removable shield plug.
• PT is enclosed by a Zircaloy Calandria tube (CT) and it is supported by 4 spring
spacers known as garter springs. dry CO2 flows thru CT/PT known as annulus gas
system. Moisture content of this gas is continuously monitored for leak detection of
PT.
• End shields (integral part of Calandria) provide shielding and permit access to fuelling
machines when reactor is shutdown
• Calandria is housed in a steel lined concrete vault which is filled with light water for
shielding.

PHT: Primary heat transport system. It circulates coolant at 12 MPa through PTs. It consists
of PTs, 2 steam generators, 2 reactor inlet headers, 2 outlet headers, 4 pumps and
interconnecting valves/piping. coolant is circulated at all times - during reactor operations,
shutdown & maintenance. Pressure control in PHT is using feed and bleed system. Bellow
sealed valves are used wherever practicable.

ECCS is provided to guard against LOCA (loss of coolant accident).

Moderator system: this system circulates the moderator through 2 heat exchangers which
removes the moderator heat. Moderator purification system maintains the purity level of the
moderator. He is the cover gas on the moderator in Calandria vessel.
Moderator is kept “cold” in a CANDU reactor. The advantages of doing so are:

• neutrons are better thermalised due to lower temperature

• better neutron economy due to using D2O
• large thermal mass of cold moderator is a safety feature against core meltdown.

Reactivity control: Due to online refuelling in PHWR a large excess reactivity is not required.
Reactivity is controlled by :

• Regulating rods
• Shim rods
• Adjustor rods for Xe override
• Nat. B addition in moderator to compensate for reactivity excess in fresh core.

Fuel :

• nat. UO2 fuel pellets, sheathed & sealed in Zr-2 cladding

• fuel bundle contains 19/37 fuel elements that are welded to an end-plate
• fuel bundle ~500 mm length, 12 bundles (220 MWe) & 13 bundles (540 MWe) in
each PT.
• Core contains - 12 x 306 = 3672 bundles/core in 220 MWe
• 13 x 392 = 5096 bundles/core in 540 MWe

CANDU fuel cycle flexibility:

• CANDU is designed to accept nat. UO2

• It can easily accept SEU. At 1.2% enrichment level, the fuel cycle costs are lowest.
Either power or burnup maybe increased with SEU.
• No significant changes are required to accommodate SEU in CANDU.

CANDU/PWR synergism:

PWR accepts 3-5% U-235

PWR rejects 0.9% U-235 + 0.6 % Pu-239 = 1.5 % fissile

PHWR accepts 0.7% U-235 to SEU

PHWR rejects 0.2-0.3% U-235 + 0.2-0.3% Pu-239

Thus, PWR spent fuel could become the fuel for PHWR after reprocessing to generate
“recovered uranium” (RU). this is an attractive fuel cycle option called the TANDEM fuel
cycle.

The issue in fuel fabrication with this cycle is that traces of Cs-137 (present in RU) would be
deposited in the sintering furnace. This can be solved by using a cold trap in the furnace.

CANDU for actinide burning:

CANDU has an important features like online refuelling and better neutron economy which
could be used to burn Pu and other actinides from an LWR. From calculations a 540 MWe
CANDU can burn ~2kg/day of TRU in an inert matrix (Zirconia).

Th fuel cycle in CANDU:

One possibility is to use SEU in some channels and ThO2 on other channels to breed U-233

If the neutron economy of CANDU is further increased by:

removing adjuster rods

using enriched Zr

a self sufficient Th cycle is feasible. This requires no fissile makeup once the equilibrium
conc. 1.5 % U-233 is reached.

CANDU Economics: 1) Capacity factor in CANDU (80-90%) used to be better initially due
to on-line refuelling. This is no longer a factor with latest LWRs due to better reactor outage
management.
2) Calandria has to be much larger compared to RV of an LWR since heavy water is less
efficient moderator compared to light water. This increases capital cost because of the larger
size and tonnage quantity of ~100% pure D2O requirement. Larger core entails a larger
containment size which further escalates the costs.

Proliferation concerns with CANDU: Tritium could be produced from D2O which could be a
source of proliferation. Tritium emissions from CANDU are also an environmental concern
but these are well below regulatory limits (usually 1% of the stipulated limits)

Zr & Zn enrichment/denaturing

A laser isotopic enrichment process is proposed for depleting Zr & Zn of the two isotopes Zr-
91 (which contributes to 75% of absorption cross section) & Zn-64. Zinc is required to
control the IGSCC (intergranular stress corrosion cracking) of stainless steel (pressure vessel
material) by controlling the water chemistry.

Mixed Oxide Fuel for PHWR

One of the option for extending the burnup of PHWR fuel is to use slightly
enriched fuel. 50 MOX fuel bundles containing mixed (U, Pu)O 2 fuel pins fabricated in
BARC have been loaded in one of the units of KAPS. Twenty five MOX fuel bundles have
been discharged from the reactor after achieving a burnup of 11GWD/t without any failure.

Fuelling: Done from opposite sides of PHWR with 2 fuelling machines that work in tandem.
They align & clamp with PT channels on opposite ends. One m/c is used to fuel and the other
will accept spent fuel bundle. Fuelling can be done when the reactor is generating power.

Fast Breeder Reactor

2nd stage of Indian Programme : FBRs utilise nat. U effectively (~75%) through breeding
and therefore provide a rapid energy growth potential (300 GWe for 30 years). They are also
a clean source of power and would provide energy security.

Coolant - liquid sodium. associated radioactivity is from Na-24

Loop type - primary heat exchanger is outside reactor tank

Pool type - primary heat exchanger & its pump is inside reactor tank

fuel - 1) MOX with upto 20% Pu

2) Metal fuel - U-Pu-Zr or U-Pu

Enrichment & Reprocessing plants are considered to entail proliferation risks. The risk from
enrichment is reduced by allowing only LEU to be used as a reactor fuel. Proliferation
resistant reprocessing is being developed in several countries. This is done by not separating
TRUs from Pu. Some of these TRUs are strong neutron sources which require their handling
in remote areas. combined fuel maybe burnt in an FBR.

FBTR:

• Na cooled, 40MWt, Loop type, vertical reaction vessel

• MOC of reactor, coolant circuits is SS316
• coolant To = 425C, Tin = 330C
• Design adopted from French Raphsodie reactor
• 2 primary Na loops, 4 secondary Na loops, 4 steam generators
• 1 turbine-generator-100% dump condenser
745 core locations in hex pattern for fuel, Ni reflectors, ThO2 blanket & steel reflectors
• Primary Na enters the core from bottom and is removed from top
• No valves are there in Na loops for safety. Na pumps are backed by DG sets for power
outages
• cold traps are provided for Na purity. Na purity is monitored by checking H in ppb
region for any moisture ingress.
• N2 is used to fight Na fires in case of LOCA
• entire primary Na is provided with double envelope against leakage. Na-24 activity in
the N2 in the double envelope indicates leakage
• Initial Fuel was 30% PuO2 + 70% UO2 (with 85% en U)
• Mark I fuel: 70% PuC + 30% UC
• Mark II fuel: 55% PuC + 45% UC
• Control rods are using B4C (90% en B-10) in SS tubes. 6 control rods with 1 mm/s
lowering for power control & scram: 400 ms drop by gravity
• Subassemblies are bottom supported using grid plate. Na flows through
subassemblies, N2 tested for flow before loading in reactor
• cover gas over liquid Na in reactor is Argon
• Humidity of reactor containment is controlled for Na fire risk
• Containment is designed for 250 mbar excess pressure due to burning of 100 kg of Na
• Reactor vessel is designed to contain an explosion from 8.8 kg of TNT
• Max burnup is 150 GWd/TeU

PFBR:
• Purpose is to demonstrate techno-economic feasibility of FBR
 • 500 MWe, RV MOC: 12.9 m dia, SS316LN, coolant T o = 425C, Tin = 330C,
surrounded by a safety vessel with a 300 mm gap for robotic ISI of the main vessel
using ultrasound & to act as Na sump in case of LOCA. Safety vessel is filled with
N2.
5. Pool type: no nozzle tappings of reactor vessel & large thermal mass of coolant to
provide additional safety & reaction time to operator. scalability of pool type is better.
Loop type has easier maintenance capability
6. MOX fuel - 21% & 28% PuO2 - UO2: proven fuel, easy fabrication & proven
reprocessing, 6.6 mm dia pins, 1000 mm annular fuel column, 300 mm upper & lower
fuel blanket, He bonded
7. target burnup ~200 GWd/t
8. 2 intermediate heat exchangers, 2 secondary Na loops, 4 steam generators, standard
turbine-generator from coal plant
9. D9 (20%CW 15Ni-14Cr-2Mo-Si-Ti) is clad material
10. 12 absorber rods to provide 2 independent and diverse shutdown system (with < 1sec
shutdown time)
11. Core catcher provided to catch melting subassemblies debris. This is a BDBA feature
(like containment).
12. Shielding provided by high density concrete & steel plates. Top shield & reactor vault
provide thermal and biological shielding

Advanced Reactors

Critical Facility :

54 pin MOX clusters with different enrichments of U-233 and Pu in Thoria. Dy

•
displacer rod at the centre
• Purpose is to conduct AHWR & PHWR experiments, validate AHWR design and to
remove modelling uncertainties in nuclear physics design parameters, void reactivities
& power peaking, lattice studies, core studies
• Nominal fission power ~100 W, flux ~108
• Reactor tank ~Aluminum, 3.3 m dia x 5 m height. supported by a grid structure
containing graphite blocks. Neutron detectors are placed within the graphite blocks
• Lattice girder assemblies : support test fuel assemblies at the desired pitch & spacing
• Square box : leak tight enclosure that houses several lattice girder assemblies. N2 is
used as cover gas
• Moderator is heavy water for initial experiments
• No ECCS is provided due to low reactor power
AHWR :

• 300 MWe, 500 m3 desalinated water

• PT: Zr-2.5Nb, CT: Zr-4, clad - Zr2
• 75% of power is from U-233 generation from ThO2
• Fuel - cylindrical assembly 54 pins, 4300 mm length x 118 mm dia: Central rod
contains Dy in ZrO2 matrix. Then there is a water tube for directly spraying ECCS
water in case of LOCA. Inner tubes will have (Th U-233)O2 - 24 pins. Outer tubes
will have (Th,Pu)O2 - 30 pins. Expected burnup is 24 GWd/Te
• Primary shutdown system : 40 control rods, secondary shutdown system is liquid
poison injection in moderator.
 • Heavy water moderated, light water cooled boiling type reactor. Average steam
quality is 18.6%
• Moderator - Heavy water. Use of heavy water (which is cold) means that neutron
economy is very good
• U-233 has max eta value meaning more savings in neutrons
• Coolant: Light water - Due to the above savings you can afford to use light water as
coolant. Light water boils in the reactor so the core is vertical. So natural circulation is
enough to remove the heat from the core. costly heavy water management and tritium
recovery system is not required. Steam drums separate steam from water
• Fuel: (Th-U233)O2 & (Th-Pu)O2 pins. First few years will have core containing Th-Pu.
Subsequently the fuel will be Th-U233 based
• No. of coolant channels : 452

Passive safety features :

• Double containment - primary (with a provision of water seal) and secondary
• Core heat removal by natural circulation of coolant during normal/shutdown condition
• Direct injection of ECCS water to the core during large break LOCA : 6000 m3 water
pool (GWD) driven by gravity close to containment for passive water cooling
• passive moderator cooling during station blackout
• steam driven passive shutdown
• passive cooling of concrete surfaces
• Poison injection into moderator by a passive system

Other features are:

• Fuelling m/c is at the top. Equipped with ram & snout drives
• Can do on-power & off-power fuelling
• Sea water Demineralistion is used to supply DM water
• Fuel cycle - 8years (4 reactor, 2 cooling, 1 reprocessing, 1 refabrication)
• After separation of Th/U, radioactivity starts increasing. Therefore the reprocessing
has to be integrated with fabrication.
•
• Main advantages of Th fuel cycle:
1. Can sustain a thermal breeding cycle
2. Cycle does not produce Pu: Meaning proliferation resistant. This means that you can
export reactors freely
3. Waste products contain low TRUs.

Thoria Based Fuel for AHWR

The design of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is based on Thorium based fuel. The
AHWR fuel assembly employs two types of fuel pins, namely, (Th-Pu)O 2 and (Th-U233)O2
MOX. These fuel pins are arranged in three rings in the fuel cluster. The outermost ring
consists of 24 pins of (Th-Pu))O 2 pins with an average of 3.25 wt % of Pu. The middle ring
consists of 18 pins of (Th-U233)O2 fuel and the innermost ring consists of 12 pins of (Th-U 233
)O2 fuel. The average burn-up for the AHWR cluster is taken as 24 GWD/t. Fabrication of
(Th-U233 )O2 fuel requires a shielded facility.

CHTR:

The idea is to make small, unattended power-packs in remote areas which is unconnected to
the grid. Also this could be used for H2 production. Lot of passive safety and passive heat
removal systems are there for unattended and long service. The fuel reload period is 14 years.

• Proposed fuel is TRISO coated particle fuel. Fuel is UC2-ThC2 coated with low
density PyC to absorb fissile recoils. This is surrounded by high density PyC whose
purpose is to protect the next layer. This is followed by a SiC layer which acts as a
Pressure vessel containment for fission products. Next a PyC coating on top protects
SiC from outside atmosphere.
• Moderator is BeO. Reflector is BeO
• Coolant is Pb/Bi loop by natural circulation

Indian High Temperature Reactor

• 600 MWth. shares several features with CHTR

• Main purpose is to produce H2
• TRISO coated fuel pebbles
• Pb-Bi eutectic coolant

Nuclear materials design aspects :

Irradiation creep : Much more pronounced compared to normal creep because of structural
damage to the materials

Irradiation embrittlement : More pronounced because of presence of more defects

Pellet density : if density is more, then thermal conductivity is more and swelling is also
more. So fuels with high burnup should have lower density. BWR fuels have lesser density
than PHWR fuels.

P/C gap : If gap is more, thermal conductivity reduces

If gap is less, it creates stress on cladding due to swelling

clad thickness : neutron economy, clad corrosion and stresses on clad governs this parameter.
For high burnup fuels free standing cladding is recommended to avoid creep collapse. for
PHWRs, collapsible cladding is OK.

Fuel failure :

In-pile densification: Pores less than 2 um gets disintegrated into vacancies causing
densification. Because of this clad collapse is possible locally. He backfilling of fuel elements
is done at a certain pressure to prevent this.
To prevent this, porosity has to be between 2-10 um.

PCI: PCMI (pellet clad mechanical interaction) is due to high L/D ratio & chamfered
pellets.
PCCI (pellet clad chemical interaction) - occurs during power ramping due to I release
and this attacks cracks, residual stressed areas. graphite coating on inner clad surface reduces
this

Hydride formation:

H will diffuse from low to high stress, high temp to low temp or high conc. to low conc.
alpha - Zr has much less solubility to ZrH1.5 which is a brittle phase. Due to creep PT touches
CT which produces a cold spot. At this spot DHC (delayed hydride cracking) will occur 2-20
hp/i000 gal. DZ.

Remedies are:
• Degassing of fuel pellets
• Adding H getters in fuel
• Pilguring of clad tubes to obtain desired texture
• Provide more garter springs.
• minimise cracks/defects in PT

Nodular corrosion:

PIE & Nuclear Metallurgy

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The peak discharge burnup of UO2 in PWR, BWR and PHWR is planned to be extended to
about 65GWD/t, 50GWD/t and 20GWD/t respectively. Target burnup for PFBR is 200 GWD/
t. With increasing burnup the overall fuel cycle costs reduce (fuel fabrication & fuel
reprocessing costs). But it puts a severe strain on materials and fuel development to withstand
the targeted burnup.
Materials used in reactor core are exposed to a unique and very severe thermal and radiation
environment during service. The radiation environment in a reactor consists of fission
fragments, high energy neutrons, charged particles and other radiations.

The widespread selection of oxide as fuel for nuclear power reactors is because of its
excellent properties with regard to compatibility with coolant on account of its chemical
inertness, irradiation stability due to its open cubic CaF 2 type crystal lattice and high fission
product retention capability. The fuel failure rate in all operating water reactors is very low
(one in 105) signifying the good performance of this fuel for the current design burnup.
Presence of high energy neutrons produces lattice defects which accelerate all diffusion based
processes. Studies of irradiated fuel and structural materials have revealed spectacular
changes in the geometry, dimensions, composition and microstructure of the materials during
irradiation.

The microstructure of as-fabricated fuel consists of equiaxed grains of 5-15 micron diameter
with uniformly distributed porosity. Considerable restructuring takes place in the fuel during
irradiation. The cross section of an irradiated UO2 pellet shows concentric zones of altered
microstructure which are indicative of temperature of the fuel during irradiation. These
restructured zones have fairly defined temperatures associated with their boundaries as given
below.

Restructured zones in irradiated UO2 fuel

Microstructure As-sintered Intergranular Equiaxed grain Columnar Central
porosity growth grains void
o
Temp range ( C) <1100 1100 – 1300 1300 – 1600 >1600 >1600

In addition to the microstructural zones, irradiated fuel also shows (i) radial and
circumferential cracks formed due to thermal stresses produced in the fuel due to radial
temperature gradient (ii) disappearance of fine porosity from the fuel because of irradiation
induced annihilation of pores by fission fragments. Restructuring is very important in fuel
performance prediction because it has considerable effect on fission gas release and results in
redistribution of Pu and fission products in the fuel pellet.

A highly porous region growing inwards from the pellet periphery, with the progress of
burnup, has been found in fuel pellets when local burnup exceeds 45 GWD/tU. This is
known as the Rim or High Burnup Structure (HBS). The characteristic features of the rim
region include poor thermal conductivity due to high porosity, submicroscopic grains (~
0.1µm), large fission gas bubbles (1 – 2 µm) on sub-grain boundaries, matrix depleted of
xenon and lattice parameter contraction. The Rim has been observed in UO 2, MOX and MC
fuels. The threshold burnup for rim formation corresponds with the acceleration in fission gas
release in fuel pins. This has generated a concern that rim formation may be the cause of
high fission gas release in fuel at burnup beyond 45 GWD/tU.

Phase transformation in nuclear fuels

Metallic bonding is non directional due to electronic nature of bond. Packing efficiency
increases from cubic(0.52) to bcc(0.68) to fcc(0.74). In fcc 26% of the lattice is empty.
Normally with temperature packing efficiency decreases.

Presence of N, O freezes the high temperature phases to lower temperatures. These non-
metallic elements occupy void positions making the material hard and the lattice becomes
rigid, thereby not allowing metal atoms to slide which is required for phase transitions. Thus,
delta-UZr2 does not form in a system containing O,N because the gamma phase gets
stabilized at RT.

Sometimes these impurities could create defects which increase the diffusion rates and enable
phase transitions. Thus kappa-PuZr2 forms more easily in the presence of O,N for this
reason.

Transformations between UC to U3C2 to UC2 are similar to martensitic transformation

which involves atomic shuffles. Small amounts of O dissolved prevent transformation from
dicarbide to sesquicarbide.

Oxides of U & Pu are ionic compounds. UO2 is a CaF2 type of lattice with eight O2- ions in
the vertices of the cube. The largest space is available at the center of the cube which is
occupied by U. Half of the centre space is occupied by U and the other half by O. Because of
the coloumbic repulsion of the interstitial O with vertices O, the lattice gets distorted it is
possible to have non-stoichiometry at high temperatures.

Monocarbides of U & Pu are dense FCC with octahedral holes occupied by carbon. The
brittleness in these is due to alternate planes of metals & non-metals. Slip is restricted on the
non metallic planes making it brittle and giving it ceramic properties while the metal planes
provide a metallic bond which gives it the metallic structure.

Fuel Swelling

• Defined as an increase in the fuel volume due to fission products located within the
fuel. It occurs because of Xe & Kr are present in solid solution form in the matrix and
also in the GBs as gas bubbles. Swelling can also occur because of the solid fission
products, but the extent of this swelling is small.

• The total fuel swelling is considered to be composed of

- solid fission product swelling,
- swelling due to intra-granular bubbles,
- swelling caused by fission gas bubbles on the grain faces, and
- swelling caused by fission gas bubbles on grain edges.

Fuel swelling = (V/V)sfp + (V/V)intra + (V/V)grain face bubble + (V/V)graing edge bubble

The solid fission product swelling is taken as a linear function of fuel burnup.
Swelling due to intra-granular bubbles is considered above 900 oC. Intra-granular bubble
swelling is estimated from the size and number of bubbles inside the fuel grain. The number
and size of intra-granular bubbles is taken as a function of fuel temperature.
Changes in Mechanical Properties of Zr-2/Zr-4 with Irradiation

YS & UTS increases on nuclear irradiation which is called irradiation hardening. %

elongation (a measure of ductility reduces)

PFBR clad material

Alloy D9 (with 20% cold working) is chosen as clad material for PFBR. D9 is compatible
with fuel & coolant. It has better swelling and irradiation creep behavior compared to SS 316.
This is possible because of higher Ni & lower Cr and also because of controlled additions of
Si, Ti.

Alloy D9I is also the next generation candidate. P & B additions are investigated for
improvements in creep strength.

Fission gas release

Fission gas release is one of the most important parameter in the over all fuel pin
performance. A substantial fraction (15%) of fission products in the nuclear fuel consists of
noble gases Xe and Kr which have extremely low solubility in the fuel matrix. If these gases
are released from the fuel they increase the pressure inside the fuel pin leading to cladding
stress. On the other hand if they are retained in the fuel they precipitate as gas bubbles and
cause fuel swelling. As the thermal conductivity of Xe is extremely poor , fission gas release
reduces the fuel-clad gap conductance and raises the fuel center temperature leading to more
gas release (See the feed back loop in Fig 1). The dimensional changes in the fuel due to
swelling leads to mechanical interaction between the fuel and the cladding, which causes
stress in the cladding making it susceptible to PCI/SCC.

Important factors governing the fission gas release in oxide fuel are temperature, fuel burnup,
grain size, fission rate and restructuring. At low temperatures (<700°C) the predominant
mechanism of gas release is recoil and knock out. The total contribution of this mechanism at
low and intermediate burn up is insignificant. However, at high burn up (>40 GWD/tU) these
mechanisms may produce significant release due to formation of high burnup structure (HBS)
known as rim, at the pellet periphery. At temperatures between 700 and 1000°C, the mobility
of fission gas atoms is too low to permit appreciable gas atom movement, although at high
burnup some bubble formation is observed. The main effect of fission gas in this temperature
range is swelling. In temperature range 1000°C – 1300oC the atomic movement of gas atoms
in solid matrix becomes important and the gas release by diffusion to escape-surfaces can
occur. In this temperature range bubbles can form, but they are not sufficiently mobile to
migrate to appreciable distances. The release occurs by accumulation of gas at the grain
boundaries in the form of bubbles (Fig 3 ), which grow and interlink to form continuous
channel and get released to open void space (Fig 4 ). Above 1600°C, fission gas release
occurs by the movement of pores and gas bubbles up the thermal gradient. Enhancement of
fission gas release is observed when fuel burn up exceeds 40GWD/t. Enhanced release of
fission gas in the fuel pin may lead to internal pressure inside the fuel pin exceeding the
coolant pressure resulting in a condition of clad lift-off. Therefore, reliable prediction of
fission gas release at extended burnup is of great importance. A computer code PROFESS has
been developed in BARC which simulates the fuel pin behaviour considering the various
interactive processes occurring in the fuel and predicts fission gas release in the fuel pins at
high burnup. The code has been validated with experimental data of several fuel pins under
an IAEA Co-ordinated Research Program on Fuel Modelling at Extended burnup known as
FUMEX. Fig. 5 shows the comparison of fission gas release predicted by PROFESS in seven
high burnup ramped fuel pins with experimentally measured values. A good agreement if
found between predicted and measured values in all cases.

Fission gas release (FGR) at low burnup

• Imp factors governing FGR are temperature, burnup (BU), grain size and
restructuring
• At low temp, predominant mechanism is recoil and knock-out. Recoil means removal
of fission products directly from fissions occurring at the fuel surface. Knockout
means collision of fission fragments leading to their removal from fuel matrix. This
mechanism contributes to ~1% of FGR release. At low temperature (<700 C) FGR is
by this mechanism. Also at high BU, this mechanism could predominate.
• At low BU, fission gas mobility is low below a temp of 1000 C. Above this temp,
fission gases migrate to grain boundaries (GB) and precipitates as a gas bubble or
pores. Then as the BU increases, more pores are formed at GB. These pores will then
form linkages and will become channels. Next these channels will become
interconnected and then release fission gases to the plenum. GB acts as efficient traps
for fission gases. Because of this there exists an incubation burnup for FGR.
• Above 1300oC, grain growth will occur which means that GBs are no longer
stationery. This moving GBs will sweep the gas bubbles from the GB. This is an
additional mechanism for FGR in addition to gas bubble migration at this
temperature.
• Above, 1600oC, evaporation condensation is the dominating mechanism. Because of
which pores will migrate to the centre of the fuel pellet and form a void.

Fission gas release (FGR) at high burnup (>40,000 MWd/te)

FGR accelerates for high BU situation because of the following reasons:

• degradation of conductivity with fuel : This leads to an increase in fuel centre-line

temperature
• Rim formation (High burnup structure, HBS) in the pellet: Rim can increase fuel
centre-line temperature. Also, at the rim fissile (Pu) concentration is higher by
evaporation & condensation mechanism which leads to greater fission and more FGR.
• Enhanced diffusion of fission products due to increase in O/M ratio of the fuel

FGR is also a function of initial grain size. As this factor increases, FGR increases for a given
temperature and Burnup.

Pellet Clad Interaction

Since the fuel operates at higher temperature than the cladding, has a higher
thermal expansion coefficient (12 x10-6 K-1) compared to cladding (6x10-6 K-1) and undergoes
swelling due to fission product accumulation, the fuel-clad gap closes at high burnup leading
to pellet clad interaction. The distortion of pellet into an hourglass shape (Fig.6) results in
manifestation of circumferential ridges in the fuel pins (Fig.7). Mechanical interaction
between the fuel pellet and the cladding results in development of tensile stress in the
cladding. This stress leads to outward creep of cladding. In the presence of corrosive fission
product like iodine, the cladding may undergo a SCC type failure if stress is higher than the
threshold stress. Water reactor fuel pins are known to fail due to PCI/SCC during power
ramps. Whenever a fuel rod is power ramped markedly beyond its previous steady state
power level, cladding is subjected to stresses due to thermal expansion of fuel. Power ramp
is also accompanied by a transient release of fission gases and volatile fission products, like
iodine, which induces SCC failure in the stressed cladding. A minimum iodine concentration
of 0.6 mg/cm2 is required for PCI/SCC to occur in Zircaloy cladding. Threshold stress
intensity factor KISCC value is reported to 3.5 MPa/m at 350 C for iodine concentration of 1.5
mg/cm2. One of the typical characteristics of PCI failure is that the crack in the cladding is
always opposite a radial crack in fuel. Examination of incipient cracks in failed fuel pins has
shown presence of a chemical interaction product in the fuel-clad gap and inside the
PCI/SCC cracks .
The occurrence of fuel clad chemical interaction (FCCI) in mixed oxide fuel pins of
fast breeder reactor depends on the oxygen potential of fuel. FCCI may initiate in fast reactor
fuel at a burnup of 7- 8 at% due to accumulation of fission product Cs , Te, Mo etc in the
fuel clad gap. Examination of irradiated fuel pins has shown presence of intergranular attack
in stainless steel cladding due to volatile fission products.

Upto 3-4 at% burnup, gap is higher and gap conductance is low. Fuel will see a high
temperature. Porosity will migrate to the centre and a void will form. Fabrication gap is
nearly closed and then the fuel temperatures will decrease. At moderate burnups of 7-8 at %,
FGR will pollute the He and cap conductance decreases again. Mo, Cs will form and will lead
to FCCI. At 12-15 at% burnup, large quantities of FGR is produced, Cs chromate formation
can occur at the clad.

Annular pellets are prescribed for PFBR for lower fuel temperature.

Thermal conductivity
The conductivity is due to phonons and electrons. Conduction occurs because of vibration of
atoms which transfer part of the energy to the neighbouring atoms. When the heat conduction
is by quantised vibration of atoms it is called phononic conduction. In insulators most of the
heat conduction is by phonons, whereas in metals it is by electrons.

For UO2 the reported model for conductivity is:

k = ko (1-p)q where q is a material constant and p is pore volume fraction.

Thermal conductivity is a function of temperature, burnup and porosity.

Strategies for Improving Fuel Performance

Large Grain Size Fuel

Fission gas release, pellet clad interaction and clad corrosion have been recognized as
major problems at extended burnup. Since the mechanism of fission gas release involves
diffusion of gas atoms to grain boundaries, grain size plays an important role in controlling
the fission gas release. Model calculations show that use of larger grain size fuel can
significantly reduce the fission gas release. Large grain fuel has been successfully developed
in BARC for application in our nuclear fuels.

Barrier Layer

Zircaloy cladding with inner soft layer of pure zirconium metal has proved to be a
very successful material remedy for PCI/SCC defection in BWRs. Graphite coating on the
inside surface of zircaloy cladding in PHWR fuel pins has also been very effective in
reducing failures of fuel pins.
Reduced Linear Heat Rating : Another effective measure for minimising PCI/SCC is
reduction in fuel pin linear heat rating. This strategy has been successfully used in PWRs and
BWRs (e.g., 18x18 PWR assemblies and 9x9 BWR assemblies).

Controlled Porosity Fuel

Atomisation of pores by fission fragments into lattice vacancies and migration of
these vacancies by diffusion to grain boundary leads to shrinkage of fuel pellet during early
period of irradiation. Fine pores (<2microns size) are annihilated in this process.
Development of fabrication technique to produce controlled porosity fuel (Fig 12 ) containing
coarse pores which are stable under irradiation has helped to overcome the problems caused
by in-pile densification. Technique for fabrication of controlled porosity fuel has been
developed in BARC.

Performance of Mixed Carbide Fuel in FBTR

(U, Pu)C mixed carbide fuel with 70% Pu is used as fuel in Fast Breeder Test Reactor
(FBTR) at Kalpakkam. The fuel in FBTR has successfully achieved a burnup of 150 GWD/t
without failure. Post irradiation examination of fuel pin after a burnup of 100 GWD/t has
revealed excellent performance of the fuel. The fuel-clad gap has closed in the fuel pin but
there was no evidence of clad carburisation. There was no evidence of restructuring in the
fuel. The fission gas release in the pin is 14% and diametral strain in cladding is 1.8%.

Material Selection for Indian Reactors

Structural Materials for Thermal Reactors

Low alloy ferritic steels in tempered martensitic condition is used as material for
pressure vessel in PWRs and BWRs.

Zirconium alloys for cladding

Zirconium alloys are the most widely used for fuel cladding and core components in
water cooled thermal power reactors The main reason for selecting zirconium as a nuclear
core material is its low thermal neutron absorption cross-section, resistance to high
temperature aqueous environments, optimum mechanical properties and resistance to
radiation damage. Broadly, two series of zirconium alloys, viz., Zr-Sn and Zr-Nb have been
developed for fuel cladding. Important alloys in Zr-Sn series are Zircaloy-2 (Zr-1.5Sn-0.1Fe-
0.1Cr-0.1Ni) and Zircaloy-4 (Zr-1.5Sn-0.2Fe-0.1Cr). Important alloys in Zr-Nb series are Zr-
1Nb and M5 (Zr-1Nb-0.1O). Essentially, two approaches have been pursued to develop clad
with better corrosion resistance suitable for higher burn-up and for service in partial boiling
coolant conditions. The first approach has led to optimizing the existing alloys in terms of
chemical composition and microstructure. This has resulted in development of Optimized
 Zicaloy-4 (low Sn, low C and controlled Si). The second approach has led to development of
new alloys namely, Zr-Sn-Nb-Fe series of alloys. Important alloys in this series are ZIRLO
(Zr-1Sn-1Nb-0.1Fe) and Alloy 635 (Zr-1.2Sn-1Nb-0.4Fe). Important alloys in Zr-Nb series
for PHWR structural materials are Zr-2.5 Nb for pressure tubes and Zr-2.5 Nb - 0.5 Cu for
garter springs.
Table - Zirconium Alloy Claddings for Thermal reactors
Zr-Sn Zr-Sn-Nb Zr-Nb
Zircaloy-2 ZIRLO Zr-1Nb
Zircaloy-4 Alloy 635 Alloy M-5
Optimized Zircaloy-4 Low Sn ZIRLO

Important corrosion problems encountered by the zirconium alloy claddings in water-

cooled nuclear power reactors are oxidation, hydriding and stress corrosion cracking.
Zircaloy-4 absorbs about one-third of hydrogen as compared to Zircaloy-2. This is attributed
to absence of Ni in Zr-4 (70 ppm max. Ni) and the presence of Ni in Zr-2 (300 - 800 ppm
Ni). Zr2Ni precipitate in Zr-2 is considered responsible for preventing corrosion `H’ atoms to
combine and form H2 molecules and also providing easy diffusion path in the oxide. Zr-2.5
Nb alloys absorb less hydrogen than Zircaloys. This is also attributed to the presence of
intermetallics viz. Zr (Fe, Cr)2 & Zr2 (Fe, Ni) in Zircaloys and their virtual absence in Zr-2.5
alloy. Presence of Nb2O5 in zirconia resulting in reduction of solubility of proton may also be
contributing to low `H’ pick up.

Zirconium alloys for Pressure Tube

Pressure tubes are the most critical component in PHWRs. Pressure tubes are
subjected to corrosion, creep and hydriding damage during service life. Hydrogen-induced
damages limit their life in the reactor. These damage processes include hydride
embrittlement, delayed hydride cracking (DHC), hydride blistering and thick film effect
leading to accelerated corrosion & hydriding.
Control of orientation of hydride precipitates reduces its detrimental effect on
toughness reduction. Hydride orientation depends on crystallographic texture, tensile stress
and microstructure. Primarily, texture controls the hydride orientation. However, stress
becomes a controlling factor when it exceeds a threshold value. Hydride precipitates
perpendicular to basal pole or perpendicular to tensile stress and in a microstructural
configuration so as to cross minimum number of grain boundaries. Service record of PHWR
pressure tubes has been excellent. Three incidents of failures have been reported so far. These
are summarised here.

Table - Incidence of Failures of Pressure tubes and the lessons learnt

Sl. Reactor Material Failure Mode Lessons Learnt
No (year)
1 Pickering-3/4, Zr-2.5Nb 75 PTs leaked near PT-EF roll Zero clearance Roll joint to
Canada joint. reduce residual stress
(1974-’75) Failure Mode: DHC
(Leak-before-Break)
2 Pickering-2, Zircaloy-2 Catastrophic Fracture due to Changes in garter spring
Canada hydride blisters formed at PT- - design (tight fit on PTs,)
(1983) CT contact caused by garter - material (In-750 in
spring displacement. place of Zr-Nb-Cu
(Break-before-Leak) - nos. ( 4 instead of 2)
3 Bruce –2, Canada Zr-2.5 Nb • Leak near Roll Joint Normal beam UT &
(1986) due to DHC caused by lap ID – ECT.
defect. Restriction on cold
• Catastrophic fracture pressurisation.
due to cold pressurisation
done for facilitating leak
detection by Acoustic
Emission
(Break-before-Leak)

Zr-2.5Nb for PHWR Pressure Tubes.

Material for PHWR pressure tube has been changed from Zircaloy-2 to Zr-2.5%Nb
(KAPS-2 onwards). Zr-2.5% Nb alloy exhibits higher UTS, lower creep rate and low
hydrogen pick up. Optimisation of this alloy has been done with respect to chemical
composition (Table 5) to improve its fracture toughness and to make it more tolerant to flaws.
This optimization has been done by quadruple melting. The pressure tubes are made using
pilgering technique which gives better microstructural control, surface finish and dimensional
control.
Table - The Effects of five Trace Elements on Fracture Properties of Zr 2.5 Nb and the
Revision in their Specified Limits.

Element Mechanism Effects on Principal Mitigation of Maximum

Fracture Source deleterious Specified
Properties effects Limits
(ppm)
1982 1992
 Forms brittle ppts reduces Zr sponge and use selected 270 125
and associates fracture scrap sponge and
C with embrittling toughness recycled
Cl material
Cl Forms fissures reduces Zr sponge use selected not 0.5
fracture sponge covered
toughness
P Forms ppts that reduces zircon sand use selected not 10
initiate fracture sponge covered
microvoids toughness
O Partitions to the may reduce Zr sponge control 900 -1300 1000 -
a-phase during fracture extrusion 1300
heating in (a+b) toughness variables
regions
H Forms brittle leads to Zr sponge and control melting 25 5
hydrides DHC and forging and forging
brittle
fracture

Isotopically Denatured Zr

Improvement in neutron economy will have considerable impact on the performance

of PHWR and AHWR fuel. One of the method to improve neutron economy is to replace
natural Zr with denatured Zr (i.e., Zr from which Zr-91 isotope has been removed). Natural
Zr contains 11.25% Zr-91 isotope which has very high capture cross section. By using laser
based isotopic separation technique the concentration of Zr-91 can be reduced to 3%. The
capture X-section of this denatured Zr is 0.09 barn compared 0.18 barn for natural Zr. Use of
denatured Zr will allow higher burnup of PHWR fuel.

Pressure Vessel Materials

PWR and BWR are pressure vessel type reactors as compared to PHWR which is a pressure
tube type reactor. Low alloy steel is used as reactor pressure vessel (RPV) material. RPV materials
are referred as either Western (Mn, Mo, Ni) or Eastern (Cr- Mo- V-Ni) steels. These materials are
optimized with respect to strength, toughness, weldability and hardenability. The reactor pressure
vessels undergo irradiation emrittlement, which limits the life of RPV. Cu, Ni, and P enhance the
susceptibility of RPV steels to radiation embrittlement. Engineering approach to enhance the life of
RPV has been to minimize the extent of embrittlement by reducing Ni, Cu and P contents,
controlling dual presence of Mn and and Ni and lowering the non-metallic inclusion content.
Structural Materials of FBRs

The life limiting processes in structural materials of fast breeder reactor have been
identified to be void swelling, irradiation creep and helium embrittlement The neutron flux
levels in FBRs are about two order higher than that of thermal reactors (~10 15n/cm2/s) and
this leads to two basic mechanisms of radiation damage by neutron bombardment viz.,
creation of lattice defects and the (n,α) transmutation reaction. The first mechanism
dominates in inducing property changes by hardening and embrittlement, irradiation creep
and void swelling. The latter mechanism results in helium embrittlement. The target burn-up
required for FBRs are of the order of 200 GWD/t and this can be achieved only by the
availability of materials resistant to the above-listed damage mechanisms as well as satisfying
the high temperature mechanical properties.
The typical operating temperature range of the fuel clad is 773-973 K under steady state
conditions. The major loads experienced by the fuel clad are the internal fission gas pressure
and the fuel-clad interaction. Other loads on the clad are due to temperature gradient and
irradiation-induced swelling gradient. The wrapper materials operate at relatively lower
temperature range of 673-873 K, which incidentally falls within the peak swelling
temperature range. Major load on the wrapper are the internal pressure due to sodium coolant
and the interaction load at the contact pads due to bowing of the sub-assemblies under
temperature and swelling gradients.

Choice of alloy D9 for Clad and Wrapper Tubes

The first generation materials for clad and wrapper tubes belonged to SS 304 and 316
grades. But the unacceptable swelling at doses higher than 50 dpa led to improvements such
as addition of stabilizing elements, changes in chemical composition and modification of the
metallurgical structure. The trend in devStructural Materials of FBRs
The life limiting processes in structural materials of fast breeder reactor have been
identified to be void swelling, irradiation creep and helium embrittlement The neutron flux
levels in FBRs are about two order higher than that of thermal reactors (~10 15n/cm2/s) and
this leads to two basic mechanisms of radiation damage by neutron bombardment viz.,
creation of lattice defects and the (n,α) transmutation reaction. The first mechanism
dominates in inducing property changes by hardening and embrittlement, irradiation creep
and void swelling. The latter mechanism results in helium embrittlement. The target burn-up
required for FBRs are of the order of 200 GWD/t and this can be achieved only by the
availability of materials resistant to the above-listed damage mechanisms as well as satisfying
the high temperature mechanical properties.

The typical operating temperature range of the fuel clad is 773-973 K under steady state
conditions. The major loads experienced by the fuel clad are the internal fission gas pressure
and the fuel-clad interaction. Other loads on the clad are due to temperature gradient and
irradiation-induced swelling gradient. The wrapper materials operate at relatively lower
temperature range of 673-873 K, which incidentally falls within the peak swelling
temperature range. Major load on the wrapper are the internal pressure due to sodium coolant
and the interaction load at the contact pads due to bowing of the sub-assemblies under
temperature and swelling gradients.

Developing radiation resistant 300 series austenitic stainless steels has been to increase the Ni
content and decrease Cr content. Solutes such as Ti, Si, P, Ni, B and C play dominant roles in
determining void swelling resistance. This observation has led to development of advanced
core structural materials such as D9 and D9I.

Figure 12 compares the performance of a few clad materials and brings out the increase
in swelling resistance by moving from the un-stabilized 316 SS to 316 Ti, 15-15 Ti(D9) and a
silicon modified version of 15-15 Ti steel. As seen in the figure, increase in the incubation
dose for swelling is the notable feature for the modified alloys. These doses are 45 dpa for
cold-worked 316 SS, 95 dpa for cold worked 316 Ti and 100 dpa for 15-15 Ti and its Si-
modification. Cold worked 15-15 Ti has reached a record dose of 140 dpa without excessive
deformation. The Ti/C ratio, which is a factor for stabilization, play an important role in
determining the irradiation behaviour.

Other Alloys for FBR Applications

Another class of alloys that has been studied extensively for their irradiation behaviour is
nickel base superalloys (PE 16, IN706 etc.). Most of the studies have shown that swelling is
low in these alloys. But nickel base alloys suffer from serious irradiation embrittlement due
to helium. 9-12% Cr ferritic-martensitic steels are considered as the long-term solution for
FBR core structural materials. Although these alloys [9Cr-IMo (EMIO), Modified 9Cr-IMo
(Gr. 91), 9Cr-2MoVNb (EM12), 12Cr-IMoVW (HT9) etc.] have excellent swelling resistance
to doses even up to 200 dpa, (1% swelling reported in HT9 after irradiation at 693 K at 200
dpa), their creep resistance decreases drastically above 823 K. Therefore, they are not suitable
for clad tubes. A high thermal creep strength is not a primary requirement for the wrapper
material since the operating temperatures are below or at the lower end of the creep range for
these materials, and the stresses are also low. A reduced creep strength is therefore
acceptable. However, the increase in ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) due to
irradiation is a cause of concern for ferritic steels. Consequently, extensive studies involving
modification of the composition and initial heat treatments have been carried out to improve
the fracture toughness. The upper-shelf energy and shift in DBTT appear to saturate at high
irradiation doses. Significant increase in toughness (i.e. low DBTT and high upper shelf
energy) have been realised by (a) avoiding the formation of delta-ferrite and ensuring fully
martensitic structure in 12% Cr steels by close control of nickel and chromium equivalent
element concentration; (delta-ferrite regions exhibit greater void formation and swelling than
adjacent regions) and (b) optimizing the austenitizing temperature to refine the prior austenite
grain size, and tempering treatments to reduce the strength of the martensite in 9-12 % Cr
steels. 9Cr-IMo grades of ferritic steels have been reported to show the lowest increase in
DBTT among the various grades of ferritic martensitic steels. These materials are promising
ones for wrapper tubes and are likely candidates for future use.

Characterization techniques:

Neutron detection

for thermal neutrons 3 types of detectors are possible:

• B-10 based: B-10 + n → Li-7 + alpha (2.3 MeV)

• He-3 based: He-3 + n → H-3 + p (0.764 MeV)
• Li-6 based : Li-6 + n → H-3 + alpha (4.78 MeV)

• Most neutron source samples also produce gamma radiation. BF3 detectors are best
for discriminating against this gamma.

• The neutron absorption cross section is the highest for He-3 detectors. So sensitivity is
higher for He-3 detectors.
• Neutron wells are made by placing the sample in a well which is surrounded by 3 cm
of HDPE for moderating neutrons. Neutron detectors are placed around this.
• Coincidence counting is done by placing multiple detectors and rejecting (alpha, n)
reaction neutrons electronically.
Isotopic Pu determination

• Pu samples contain isotopes from Pu-238 to Pu-242. Isotopic composition is normally

determined by TIMS (thermal ionisation mass spectrometry) because of the highest
accuracy. Also alpha spectrometry is also used in conjunction.
• Gamma spectrometry could also be used by measuring pulse height of the
characteristic gamma spectra of the isotopic peaks in the range of 129 to 670 KeV
range. It is not very accurate but is a NDT technique for quality control purpose.

Radiography of fuel pins

• X ray: Testing involves passing a narrow beam of X rays thorough the object and
recording the transmitted radiation on a photographic film. X rays are differentially
absorbed on the film due to thickness or density variations. This is done for end plug
welding of the fuel pins.
• Gamma radiography: Conventional X rays have lesser energy (~420 KeV). They will
not penetrate high density, high Z materials like UO2. Gamma rays from Co-60
source are used (1.17 & 1.33 MeV) Identification of annular or solid pellets are used
by this technique.
• Gamma autoradiography (GAR): Gamma rays from Pu are used to check for
surface/sub-surface Pu inhomogeneity from the fuel pin.
• X-GAR : Combination of X-ray and GAR. Gives a single image for hardware and
fuel.
• Neutron radiography : It can discriminate between 2 neighboring atoms in periodic
table. 400 KW Apsara reactor could be used for neutron source. A collimated beam of
thermal neutrons are used as a source. Pin is kept at 60 cm distance from the
collimator, followed by a light tight cassette containing Gd screen and X-ray film.
• Alpha autoradiography : Uses alpha radiation emanating from Pu in the fuel pellet.
Metallographically polished pellets are kept in close contact with solid state nuclear
track detector film (cellulose nitrate). Tracks are formed by alpha which are
developed by NaOH solution. Pu inhomogeneity is detected.
• Filmless radiography : Uses CCD camera instead of X-ray film. The image is
available on PC or TV monitor.

Gamma scanning of fuel pin

PGS – Passive gamma scanning : Uses a multi-channel analyzer NaI (Tl) counting detector –
3” x 3” to detect the gammas emanating from the fuel stack. Main objective is to check if the
fuel stack has the right enrichment. And if there is no pellet of a different enrichment. It also
identifies presence of agglomerates

AGS – Is used to examine the internal arrangement of hardware in the FBTR fuel pin.

NDT techniques in NFC

BWR fuel -
 • Density measurement by using an indigenously developed laser based system (to
measure pellet dia, height) and simultaneously mass to determine density. System
measures density @ 250 pellets/hr with an accuracy of 0.01 g/cc. It uses an Oracle
based software for data recording.
• 100% visual inspection of pellets for surface defects like cracks, chippings etc.
Operators are qualified using Juran Meishalmer Index test.
• Radiography of weld endcaps for TIG welding
• Gamma scanning of pins for enrichment variation in fuel stack. There are 3
enrichment levels: 1.6%, 2.1% and 2.66%.
• He leak detection of pins

PHWR fuel -

• Ultrasonic testing of resistance welded end caps. Radiography does not provide the
desired sensitivity. 30 MHz, 0.2 mm spot based US testing method is used. Defects
are characterized and located from the return signal by using fast Fourier response.
• Beta back-scattering of the graphite coating on the inner wall of the clad tube. The
coating is given to minimise PCI (pellet clad interaction). Coating thickness should be
in 5-9 micron thickness. A thinner coating enhances friction and thicker coating does
not have a good adhesion. Pm-147 is the beta source. GM counter is used to
characterize thickness since the extent of back-scatter reduces as the thickness
increases.

Analytical Techniques

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) - It is based on the principle of neutron activation of

isotopes of chemical elements and subsequently the induced radioactivity (beta or gamma) is
measured. The activated products could decay by alpha, beta, gamma, X-rays or delayed
neutrons. Sensitivity is high (in ppm, ppb region). Matrix effects are negligible. It is
simultaneous, multi-element technique.

PGNAA is prompt gamma NAA is simultaneous/online gamma measurement for low Z

elements (H, B, C, P, Si etc.). It is complimentary to NAA which uses delayed gamma rays
and therefore is offline. PGNAA is not as sensitive as conventional NAA

FFC process – Developed by Frey, Farthing & Chen. In 1997. Setup a company called
Metallysis for preparation of Ti directly from TiO2 pellets.

• Process temp ~1000oC

• Uses CaCL2 molten salt, carbon cathode and TiO2 pellets as anode
• Claims to reduce cost compared to Kroll's process which first involves chlorination of
TiO2 & then Mg reduction

• Could be used for UO2 & PuO2 as demonstrated by Korea.

SOFC