Fuel Rod Expertise for the Nuclear Power Industry
AB, AM, Ph.D. Physics
Major accomplishments at CNFD included:
- Development and licensing of the PAD 3.4 fuel rod performance models, which has been CNFD's basic tool for fuel rod design and safety analyses since it was approved by the NRC in 1988;
- Development of the PAD3.4 fuel rod design methods for rod internal pressures and fuel temperature inputs to safety analyses;
- Interface with the NRC and other regulatory agencies on the technical aspects of fuel rod performance;
- Interface with Westinghouse's international licensees on fuel rod performance models and fuel rod design methods;
- Development and presentation of training materials on fuel rod performance models, design methods, and fuel rod model development techniques;
- Development of the fuel rod design power history methodology, which enabled CNFD to take full advantage of the additional fuel performance margin given by the PAD3.4 models;
- Fuel rod design development and analysis for CNFD's advanced fuel products, including the VANTAGE+ and PERFORMANCE+ fuel with ZIRLOÔ cladding, the Westinghouse fuel supplied to the Fort Calhoun and Maine Yankee 14x14 Combustion Engineering plants, and the Westinghouse fuel supplied to the Temelin VVER-1000 plants;
- Development and licensing of the ZIRLO in-reactor creep, growth and corrosion models;
- Development of the TREQ fuel rod performance code, in a collaborative program with Westinghouse's European licensees to provide a state-of-the-art fuel performance model to meet current European fuel licensing requirements. TREQ is now in use in the European fuel market; and
- Development of the new Zirconium Based Alloy (ZrBA) cladding corrosion model, which was recently accepted by the NRC for use in Westinghouse's fuel rod design and safety analyses, which gives an accurate description of the enhanced corrosion of Zircaloy-4 cladding under the limiting operating conditions utilities are now following to maximize economic return on their investments in the fuel.
