Preliminary Results of the BTF-105B Experiment: An In-Reactor Test of Fuel Behaviour and Fission-Product Release Under LOCAILOECC Conditions

Abstract

The BTF-105B test is one of a series of in-reactor, all-effects, tests performed to measure fuel behaviour, fission-product release, and transport from nuclear fuel subjected to accident conditions. The primary objective of the BTF-105B test was to determine the tinting, amount, and transport characteristics of fission products released from a previously irradiated CANDU-sized fuel element subjected to a high-temperature transient, representative of a loss-of-coolant accident with loss- of emergency-core-cooling conditions, at an average fuel temperature of 1800 degrees C. The preliminary results of the BTF-105B test are presented in this paper. The results include process parameters, from which boundary conditions could be derived for simulating the test; fuel parameters, such as sheath temperatures and hydrogen production rate; and fission-product release and transport data.