TM-39468 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY Technical Meeting on FUEL INTEGRITY DURING NORMAL OPERATION AND ACCIDENT CONDITIONS IN PRESSURIZED HEAVY WATER REACTORS (PHWRs) Bucharest, Romania September 24 27, 2012 Scientific Secretary Uddharan BASAK IAEA Conducted within the frame of IAEA s Technical Working Group on Fuel Performance Technology 1
INFORMATION SHEET AND CALL FOR PAPERS 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Many Member States have operating pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) and are also planning for new reactors of this type. Some of the operating PHWRs would also undergo a life extension programme shortly. These reactors presently use natural uranium as fuel to an average burnup of 7000 MWd/t. There is also a desire to increase the discharge burnup by incorporating advanced fuels containing either slightly enriched uranium (SEU) or reprocessed uranium from light water reactors (RU) or mixed uranium plutonium oxide (MOX) or thorium. PHWR fuel has many technical challenges in comparison to light water cooled reactors (LWRs), such as, collapsible clad, high linear heat rating, on-power fuelling, high fission gas release and high fission gas pressure due to absence of plenum volume. All these factors are likely to affect the integrity of fuel pin & bundle which in turn may affect the safe and economical operation of the power plants. The fuel matrix and cladding tubes act as a first barrier in preventing the release of radioactive fission products into the coolant. Therefore an understanding of the fuel and the clad behaviour under different reactor operating conditions, severe transients and accident conditions, are of paramount importance in order to assess the inherent safety margins in the fuel design and to plan for mitigation of the consequences of accidents. This meeting is a third in a series of IAEA meetings. The first meeting on Fuel Modelling for PHWR was held in India in 2006 and the second one on Fuel Design, Fabrication and Performance for PHWR was held in Argentina in 2009. 2. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE There is a need for understanding the PHWR fuel behaviour under different operating conditions and to generate database on the behaviour of fuel, cladding and fuel rods to understand and model the fuel pin behaviour under normal operation and accident conditions. 3. PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME Papers are invited on the following topics: Thermal performance issues of fuel pin Pellet clad interaction Fission product inventory in PHWR fuel Release of gaseous and volatile fission products from fuel pellets under normal and transient conditions Deformation and ballooning of fuel cladding Behaviour of fuel pellet and cladding during normal operating conditions and during and after transient conditions Modelling of fuel and cladding behaviour during normal operating and accident conditions Assessment of fuel integrity during transients induced by various accidents Out-of pile simulation tests on fuel pins. 2
4. PARTICIPATION Participation is solicited from governmental, national and international organisations, research centres, universities, and industries. To ensure maximum effectiveness in the exchange of information, the participants should be persons actively involved in the subject of the meeting. Participants should complete the attached Participation Form (FORM A) as soon as possible and send it to the competent official authority (Ministry of Foreign Affairs or National Atomic Energy Authority) for transmission to the IAEA Secretariat, to arrive not later than July 20, 2012. The designation of a participant will be accepted only if forwarded by the Government of an IAEA Member State or by an Organisation invited to participate. The meeting is, in principle, open to all officially designated persons. The IAEA, however, reserves the right to limit participation should this become necessary due to limitations imposed by the available seating capacity. It is therefore recommended that interested persons take the necessary steps to obtain their official designation as early as possible. A preliminary meeting Agenda will be sent to the participants when the completed Participation Forms are received. 5. MEETING ORGANIZATION Official correspondence with regard to the technical aspects of the meeting should be addressed to the scientific secretary: Mr. Uddharan BASAK Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology Department of Nuclear Energy International Atomic Energy Agency P. O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5 A-1400 Vienna, Austria Phone: +43 1 2600 22771 Fax: +43 1 26007 E-mail u.basak@iaea.org In Romania, the meeting support will be ensured by: Meeting Chairman: Local Coordinator: Logistics Support: Mr. Dumitru DINA Development and Strategy Manager (acting) Director General Societatea Nationala "Nuclearelectrica" SA Str. Polona Nr.65, Sector 1 010494 Bucharest, PO Box 22-102 Phone:+4 021 203 82 88 Fax: +4 021 316 29 97 E-mail: ddina@nuclearelectrica.ro Mr. Nicolae BARAITARU Societatea Nationala "Nuclearelectrica" SA Superintendent, Reactor Physics and Safety Analyses Group Cernavoda NPP Str. Medgidiei Nr. 2 905200 Cernavoda, Jud. Constanta Phone: +4 021 801 225 E-mail: nbaraitaru@cne.ro Mrs. Valentina DINU Societatea Nationala "Nuclearelectrica" SA Str. Polona Nr.65, Sector 1 3
6. SUMMARIES AND PAPERS 4 010494 Bucharest, PO Box 22-102 Phone:+4 021 203 82 77 Fax:+4 021 316 94 00 E-mail: vdinu@nuclearelectrica.ro The Participation Form (see attachment) should be submitted through the appropriate government channels with an indication of the intention to present a paper. Participation Forms must be transmitted to the IAEA in time to reach the IAEA by 20 July 2012, together with a copy of a one-page abstract. The abstract will be used to select papers (based on coherence with the objectives and scope of the Technical Meeting, novelty and significance of results, clarity of presentation, etc.) and to establish the final programme. Authors will be notified of the status of their paper by the IAEA. On arrival to the meeting the authors are requested to bring a digital version of the paper in MS Word format to facilitate editing and publication of the proceedings and their presentation in Power Point format on a disk (or CD ROM). All papers - apart from invited reviews - must present original work; they should not have been published elsewhere. Detailed instructions for preparation of the manuscript for publication will be provided to authors upon notification of acceptance of their paper. Authors of accepted papers will be allowed approximately 20 minutes for their presentations, including a discussion period. A full paper (not more than 10 pages in length, double-spaced, and including figures, graphs, and/or tables) will be published by the IAEA in the Technical Document. Further instructions will be sent directly to authors of accepted papers as soon as the selection has been made. Both an overhead and a video projector, and a screen for viewgraphs will be provided. Any additional equipment requirements should be noted on the attached Participation Form. The meeting agenda will be provided to the participants sufficiently in advance of the meeting. 7. VENUE The meeting will be held at the Novotel Hotel in Bucharest, Romania. This is a four stars hotel located in the city centre. Other hotels for different budgets are available at walking distance from the venue. Participants should arrange their accommodations directly with the hotels. The last day of the meeting will be set aside for a technical visit to the Romanian Fuel Manufacturer near Pitesti town. Transportation to and from this facility will be provided free of charge. Further details about social events and leisure activities will be provided during the meeting. 8. WORKING LANGUAGE The working language of the meeting will be English, with no interpretation provided. All communications, abstracts and papers must be in this language. 9. VISAS Participants are also advised that they might require a valid passport and visa for entry into Romania. Please note that Romania is an EU member country in process of joining the Schengen space. Accordingly, it would be advisable to begin the immediate preparation of travel arrangements and necessary authorizations. Please advise the organizing secretary as soon as possible if a formal invitation letter is needed in order to facilitate the visa request. We request that you apply for visa in a timely manner, if necessary. The following details may be forwarded to the organizing secretary: Participant City and Country of Birth Date of Birth Home Address
Passport Number and Expiration Date Citizenship 10. EXPENDITURES In accordance with the established rules, Governments, national authorities, private companies or individual funding are expected to bear the travel and other costs of designated participants in the meeting. Limited funds are, however, available to help cover the cost of participants from Member States eligible to receive technical assistance under the IAEA s Technical Cooperation programme. Such assistance can be offered, upon specific request, to one participant per country provided that, in the IAEA s view, this participant will make an important contribution to the meeting. The application for financial support should be made at the time of the designation of the participant. The Secretariat wishes to state that compensation is not payable by the IAEA for any damage to or loss of the experts personal property. However, for the period of the experts engagement with the IAEA, including travel between their residence and the duty station, the designated experts will be covered under the IAEA s insurance policy for permanent total disablement or death resulting from serviceincurred accidents or illness up to a maximum of 100 000, for permanent partial disablement resulting from service-incurred accidents or illness up to a maximum of 100 000 and for medical expenses up to a maximum of 20 000 plus 10 000 for supplementary travel and accommodation expenses in case of illness or injury resulting from service-incurred accidents or illness, in accordance with the terms of the IAEA s relevant insurance policy. This insurance coverage only covers accidents and illnesses insofar as they clearly result from attendance at an IAEA meeting. The IAEA recommends that the experts also make arrangements for private insurance coverage on an individual basis. 5
FORM A INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY Technical Meeting On TM-39468 FUEL INTEGRITY DURING NORMAL OPERATION AND ACCIDENT CONDITIONS IN PRESSURIZED HEAVY WATER REACTORS (PHWRs) September 24-27, 2012 To be sent before 20th July, 2012 to the competent official authority (Ministry of Foreign Affairs or National Atomic Energy Agency) for transmission to the Scientific Secretary Mr. Uddharan BASAK, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100 Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, Fax: +43 1 26007 (email: u.basak@iaea.org) PARTICIPATION FORM Family Name All initials of given name Mr./Ms. Institution Full Address Tel. No. Fax. No. Nationality Designating government or Organization Mailing address (if different from address of institution): E-mail: Title of Paper(s): (A one-page abstract of each paper offered should be attached to this form before forwarding) Participant City and Country of Birth Date of Birth Home Address Passport Number and Expiration Date Citizenship Male Female Accompanying Person Full Name City, Country, and Date of Birth Home Address Relationship to Participant Citizenship 6