LOFT: Zircaloy-Steam Rapid at 2060 degrees Fahrenheit, ADAMS ML071940358

Here is the LOFT Report: See page 50 of 298.

The reference is:

Adams, J. P., et. al., "QUICK LOOK REPORT ON OECD LOFT EXPERIMENT LP-FP-2," OECD LOFT-T3804, ADAMS ML071940358, September 1985.


OECD LOFT-T-3804, "OECD LOFT Project, Quick-Look Report ...

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0719/ML071940358.pdf


Anyway, the following is page 30 of that report (also page 50 of 298) which you unfortunately cannot easily read because BLOGSPOT.COM again has screwed up it enlarging capability. However, the URL immediately above brings up the report and you can get page 50 of 298 although several earlier pages do not show up. Here is the key sentence, the last sentence in the second paragraph:

"It can be concluded from examination of the recorded temperatures that the oxidation of zircaloy by steam becomes rapid at temperatures in excess of 1400 K (2060 degrees Fahrenheit)."

NRC Entertains Us: Denial of Leyse PRM-50-76

It's no secret that NRC has denied my PRM-50-76. I've been looking into that denial since then and now I believe I have nabbed those clowns red-handed. For an opener to this disclosure, please view my e-mail to Chairman NRC that is dated 10/13/2006, via the blue link below. ADAMS ML062930252.

[PDF] LTR-06-0529 - E-mail Robert H. Leyse re: PRM-50-76, A ...


Sometimes that will not open, so I've also copied that one page below.

For emphasis, I am repeating the main paragraph of my e-mail dated October 13, 2006. The NRC stated that, "More than 50 tests were conducted to evaluate the thermal-hydraulic and mechanical deformation behavior of a full length 32-rod nuclear bundle during the heatup, reflood and quench phases of a large break LOCA." And that, "The NRC is reviewing the data from this program to determine the value of using it to assess the current generation of codes such as TRAC-M (Reference 20), now renamed TRACE."

Click on the following to view NRC's Technical Safety Analysis of my PRM-50-76.

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0412/ML041210109.pdf

Click on the following to view NRC's response my e-mail to NRC Chairman and note that, "The agency intends to compare the data from two of the NRU tests to TRACE predictions of those experiments as part of its overall assessment of the code."

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0705/ML070540103.pdf

Click on the following to view NRC funded work that NRC covered-up, see Figures 17 and 18.
http://www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/3318092.pdf


Recall that in its letter to Senator Craig, the NRC said that it "... intends to compare the data from two of the NRU tests to TRACE predictions ..." Indeed,the NRC had already compared two sets of NRU data to its code predictions as disclosed in its contractor report, INEEL/EXT-99-00571, during 1999, well in advance of my submittal of PRM-50-76 dated May 1, 2002. It is also "interesting" that report INEEL/EXT-99-00571 is currently in non-public ADAMS although it may become available to the public (in response to my request).

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purv/10188341-UM0U6M/native/

Well said

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved."

Charles F. Kettering,
inventor and engineer (1876-1958)

INL documented test NRU FLHT-5 and more

Searching via BING I found the following:

http://www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/3318092.pdf

And I produced the slide below:

Cladding-steam and bundles: ANL 7609

Argonne performed single rod and also small bundle tests (four rods) with zircaloy clad fuel rod simulators.

From ANL-7609 we learn: "A true simulation of loss-0f-coolant accident conditions requires a large number of fuel rods to achieve a realistic thermal environment for each rod." (page 24 of 38)

Then on page 25 of 38, Argonne describes the assembly: These rods were assembled on 0.6 in. centers in a square lattice by means of Teflon end plugs. Two W%-Re/W26-Re thermocouples were positioned between the grooved UO2 pellets and the cladding, one facing the center of the bundle and the other facing the perimeter. This assembly was then installed inside a quartz steam jacket (1 9/16 in. ID).

The text continues its case for multirod assemblies:

The temperature gradient observed between inner and outer edges of each rod, and the subsequent longitudinal rupture of the cladding along the inner walls of the four-rod bundle, indicate the desirability for additional experiments using more rods per bundle - for example, a center rod with at least one, and preferably two, outer rows of rods.

You may view ANL-7609; especially pages 24 and 25 of 38:
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/4132278-dAViPP/

The NRC reviewers of my denied petition for rulemaking, PRM-50-76, missed this pertinent ANL document. I will so inform the five NRC Commissioners. The NRC must also include this reference in reviewing the pending PRM-50-93. And it is especially relevant to the Fukushima case.

Zircaloy and Science

Romano Salvatori 1971 Some history of W nuke plants

Safety Related R & D for Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactors as of 1971.


Again,somebody has messed up the enlargement capability of this blog, so following is a larger version of the body of the above letter from Westinghouse to the Atomic Energy Commission.

The report from Salavatori to Morris includes a SCHEDULE OF COMMERCIAL OPERATING DATES as of 1971 and the plants are listed in the following three slides. Fifty-one are listed with commercial operating dates ranging from 1969 through 1980. Only five of these units were in operation prior to 1971.

WARNING