Summary
An experiment has been performed in which a hot, electrically heated, Zircaloy tube was internally reflooded with water from below. The object was to learn about the rewetting of the Zircaloy cladding of PWR fuel rods during the reflood phase of a loss of coolant accident. It was found, as previous work had shown, that the Zircaloy tube rewetted approximately twice as quickly as a similar tube of Inconel, because of its lower thermal capacity.
The effect of an oxide layer on the Zircaloy was systematically investigated. Layers of average thickness from 1 to 75 dun were studied, and the nature of the surface was carefully recorded. It was found that oxidation had a small effect on the quench front speed compared with the effect of other variables such as flooding rate and pressure. The speed increased by about 40% at the highest oxide thickness.
Calculations indicated that oxidation would have a similar effect on the rewetting of a PWR fuel rod.
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References
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© 1985 ECSC, EEC, EAEC, Brussels and Luxembourg
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Denham, M.K., Blackburn, D. (1985). Rewetting Propagation Over Zircaloy Under Bottom Flooding Conditions. In: Skupinski, E., Tolley, B., Vilain, J. (eds) Safety of Thermal Water Reactors. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4972-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4972-0_16
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