NUREG-0840, Comments Re Peer Group Review of Draft NRC Fuel Testing Task Force rept.In-vessel Core Damage Progression Must Be Experimentally Addressed
| ML20054M307 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 08/21/1981 |
| From: | Mcpherson G NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| To: | Silberberg M NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| References | |
| RTR-NUREG-0840, RTR-NUREG-840 NUDOCS 8207120264 | |
| Download: ML20054M307 (2) | |
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Research Request No.
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Mel Silberberg, Chief Fuel Behavior Branch FROM:
G. Donald McPherson, Section Leader Integral Systems Section Experimental Programs Branch
SUBJECT:
AN EXPANSION OF REMARKS MADE AT THE PEER - GROUP REVIEW 0F THE DRAFT REPORT OF THE NRC FUEL TESTING TASK FORCE, SUN VALLEY, ID, AUGUST 6,1981.
Many good recommendations to improve this report have been made. To avoid repeating these and to draw attention to one particular weakness of the report, I shall focus on only one point: The necessity of experimentally addressing the question of in-vessel core damage progression. The report correctly points out the need to address the question and suggests that the answers can be supplied by tests of a 17x17 bundle in PBF and by examining the TMI-2 core.
First, I believe that more than those two sets of large-bundle tests are needed, and second, I believe the report should emphasize the necessity and urgency of addressing the question with experimental data from large bundles. These two points are discussed below.
More Tests Needed The TMI-2 data is only one data point in the sense of damage progression, and several more data points are required.
The PBF large bundle series would be useful for this purpose, but it will not provide the typical system-to-core coupling inherent in commercial plants, and the fission product distribution through the test loop would probably be quite atypical.
For these reasons, I cannot judge how strongly these tests should be supported.
On the other hand, many people in the fuel behavior community have stated to me that fuel damage tests in LOFT would give relatively typical results in those two areas and they would provide an adequate core diameter for the study of core damage progression.
I conclude from this that in addition to the TMI-2 examination and the
.PBF large-bundle test series, tests on a relatively large core are needed, and the core should be part of a simulated LWR reactor system.
8207120264 810821
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Necessity and Urgency s
The lack of understanding of fuel damage progressioPis.. obvious _to,all i
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and it cannot be resolved in the absence of experimental data. The report should, therefore, emphasize the necessityscf obtaining sufficient.-
data. Given the schedule of completing this progran by FY 37 and the fact that we are now planning the FY 83 budget, the planning of the' needed tests is more urgent than is apparent from the report. I,.therefore, i
recommend a strong emphasis on committment and planning of) the proposed y.
fuel damage tests.
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' G. Donald McPherson, Section Leader Integral Systems Section Experimental Programs: Branch i l
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