Fission product release from nuclear fuel by recoil and knockout

Abstract

An analytical model has been developed to describe the fission product release from nuclear fuel arising from the surface-fission release mechanisms of recoil and knockout. Release expressions are evaluated and compared to the short-lived activity measurements from in-reactor experiments with intact operating fuel. Recoil is shown to be an important process for releasing fission products from free UO2 surfaces into the fuel-to-sheath gap. The model is also applied to tramp uranium in a power reactor primary heat transport circuit where it is demonstrated that recoil is the dominant release mechanism for small particles of fuel which are deposited on in-core surfaces. A methodology is established whereby release from surface contamination can be distinguished from that of fuel pin failure. © 1987.