Measurement of fission gas release, internal pressure and cladding creep rate in the fuel pins of PHWR bundle of normal discharge burnup

Fuel pins of a Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) fuel bundle discharged from Narora Atomic Power Station unit #1 after attaining a fuel burnup of 7528 MWd/tU have been subjected to two types of studies, namely (i) puncture test to estimate extent of fission gas release and internal pressure in the fuel pin and (ii) localized heating of the irradiated fuel pin to measure the creep rate of the cladding in temperature range 800 °C–900 °C. The fission gas release in the fuel pins from the outer ring of the bundle was found to be about 8%. However, only marginal release was found in fuel pins from the middle ring and the central fuel pin. The internal gas pressure in the outer fuel pin was measured to be 0.55 ± 0.05 MPa at room temperature. In-cell isothermal heating of a small portion of the outer fuel pins was carried out at 800 °C, 850 °C and 900 °C for 10 min and the increase in diameter of the fuel pin was measured after heat treatment. Creep rates of the cladding obtained from the measurement of the diameter change of the cladding due to heating at 800 °C, 850 °C and 900 °C were found respectively to be 2.4 × 10−5 s−1, 24.6 × 10−5 s−1 and 45.6 × 10−5 s−1.