Modeling of Zr alloy burst cladding internal oxidation and secondary hydriding under LOCA conditions

The recently developed mechanistic model for Zr alloy cladding hydriding has been implemented in the single-rod SVECHA/QUENCH (S/Q) code. The mass transfer in a fuel rod after ballooning and burst opening have been modeled in the modified code that allowed calculating hydrogen and oxygen pickup by the cladding inner-metal surface. The code predicts with a good accuracy the typical distributions of oxygen and hydrogen in the Zr alloy cladding that were observed in the JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute) and ANL (Argonne National Laboratory) single-rod tests and KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) bundle tests under postulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) conditions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.