In recent years, organizations both at home and abroad are actively carrying out a research on the Molten Salt Reactor systems (MSRs). For example, the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), is currently involved in the design and development of a 10MWth Solid Fuel Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR-SF1). SINAP started their analysis of TMSR using an earlier version of RELAP/SCDAPSIM, MOD4.0. MOD4.0 included models and correlations for molten salts but was unable to treat molten salts in the presence of non-condensable gases. Since that time SINAP and ISS have worked in parallel to extend the models and correlations for such systems. The SINAP modified code, using SINAP proprietary models and correlations, is described in the “open literature” under the name RELAP5-MSR. More general, but comparable, models developed by ISS for liquid metals/salts in the presence of non-condensable have been incorporated into RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD4.1. This extended option is currently being implemented for Li-Pb, Pb-Bi, molten salts, and Na.
AGR-1 and AGR-2 tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles were fabricated using slightly different fuel kernel chemical compositions, modified fabrication processes, different fuel kernel diameters, and changed 235U enrichments. Extensive microstructural and analytical characterizations were conducted to correlate those differences with the fuel kernels’ responses to neutron irradiations in terms of irradiated fuel microstructure, fission products’ chemical and physical states, and fission gas bubble evolutions. The studies used state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopy (TEM) equipped with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) via four silicon solid-state detectors with super sensitivity and rapid speed. The TEM specimens were prepared from selected AGR-1 and AGR-2 irradiated fuel kernels exposed to safety testing after irradiation. The particles were chosen in order to create representative irradiation conditions with fuel burnup in the range of 10.8 to 18.6% fissions per initial metal atom (FIMA) and time-average volume-average temperatures varying from 1070 to 1287°C. The 235U enrichment was 19.74 wt.% and 14.03 wt.% for the AGR-1 and AGR-2 fuel kernels, respectively. The TEM results showed significant microstructural reconstructions in the irradiated fuel kernels from both the AGR-1 and AGR-2 fuels. There are four major phases: fuel matrix of UO2 and UC, U2RuC2, and UMoC2—in the irradiated AGR-2 fuel kernel. Zr and Nd form a solid solution in the UC phase. The UMoC2 phase often features a detectable concentration of Tc. Pd was mainly found to be located in the buffer layer or associated with fission gas bubbles within the UMoC2 phase. EDS maps qualitatively show that rare-earth fission products (Nd et al.) preferentially reside in the UO2 phase. In contrast, in the irradiated AGR-1 fuel kernel, no U2RuC2 or UMoC2 precipitates were positively identified. Instead, there was a high number of rod-shaped precipitates enriched with Ru, Tc, Rh, and Pd observed in the fuel kernel center and edge zone. The differences in irradiated fuel kernel microstructural and micro-chemical evolution when comparing AGR-1 and AGR-2 TRISO fuel particles may result from a combination of irradiation temperature, fuel geometry, and chemical composition. However, irradiation temperature probably plays a more deterministic role. Limited electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) characterizations of the AGR-2 fuel kernel show almost no carbon in the UO2 phase, but a small fraction of oxygen was detected in the UC/UMoC2 phase.
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