Neutronic Performance Analysis of Inner-Side Chromium Coatings for Accident Tolerant Fuel

To address concerns about the degradation of unprotected internal surfaces of nuclear fuel claddings, inner-side coatings have been proposed as a complementary approach to the accident tolerant fuel protective coating concept. In addition to the increased coping time during severe events, these coatings are expected to provide enhanced protection in normal operation conditions. This study analyzes the neutronic performance of chromium (Cr) inner-side coatings in VVER-type fuel assemblies. Different aspects, such as reactivity and cycle length penalties, enrichment requirements, neutron flux, and the associated isotopic concentration changes are discussed, considering both the coating thickness and position.

The results show that for the same thickness, reactivity penalties due to the use of inner-side Cr coatings will be (~30% on average) less compared to external coatings. The fuel assembly operating cycle showed reductions by ~ 5.5 effective full-power days when a 10-µm-thick internal Cr coating is introduced, while a 10-µm two-sided coated assembly possessed an ~13.6-day shorter operating cycle compared to an uncoated fuel assembly of the same specifications.

The neutron flux showed slight shifts and hardening in the thermal energy region. The analysis of nuclide inventories showed relative increases in these inventories, which were proportional to the thickness. For the fissile plutonium isotope ²³⁹Pu, this relative increase reached a peak of 0.25% and 0.42% (for the 10-µm and 20-µm internal Cr coatings) at a fuel burnup of 18 MWd/kg heavy metal (HM). While for ²⁴¹Pu, the observed highest relative increases for the 10-µm- and 20-µm-thick internal Cr coatings were 0.74% and 1.03%, respectively. The ¹³⁵Xe isotopic concentration showed a relative increase that reached 0.2% and 0.4% for the 10-µm and 20-µm internal Cr coatings at a burnup of 34 MWd/kgHM, while the ¹⁴⁹Sm concentration increased by 0.2% and 0.5% for the 10-µm and 20-µm internal Cr coatings, respectively.

While these observed isotopic concentration changes were generally small for the studied inner-side coatings, the results showed that the changes remain subject to further increases as the amount of coating material gets higher. Therefore, it is important for the coating thickness to be optimized, taking into account the impact of such nuclide inventory changes. Possible fuel-clad gap reductions and the associated effects on heat transfer, as well as gap tolerance to fission products and fuel relocations, will require further studies, especially so that additional enrichments may be applied.