Anatomy of a Novel Irradiation Test: Structure and Process of the DRIFT Experiment in TREAT

The DRIFT series of experiments at Idaho National Laboratory’s TREAT transient testing facility explored pellet cracking behavior in ceramic UO2 fuel pellets at LWR-relevant conditions to create data to support modeling and simulation of fuel performance. This session will march through the irradiation testing process to highlight the steps required to turn a hypothesis into an irradiation test that can produce usable data. The DRIFT-UO2 experiment at TREAT is based on the IRP-16-10905 - Heng Ben (PITT), Mary Lou Dunzig-Gougar (ISU), “Transient Reactor (TREAT) Experiments to Validate MBM Fuel Performance Simulations” https://neup.inl.gov/SiteAssets/FY%202016%20Abstracts/IRP/IRP-16-10905_TechnicalAbstract_2016CFAAbstract10905.pdf Benjamin Spencer, et al., “Dry in-pile fracture test (DRIFT) for separate-effects validation of ceramic fuel fracture models,” Journal of Nuclear Materials, 568 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153816