Measurement and analysis of fission gas release from BNFLʹs SBR MOX fuel

Puncture results are presented for seven SBR MOX fuel rods from the first prototypical commercial irradiation that was carried out in the Beznau-1 PWR. The rod average burn-up ranged from 31.2 to 35.6 MWd/kgHM. Comparison is made with the percentage of gas released from French MOX fuels and UO2 fuel. The results show that in the burn-up range investigated, SBR MOX fuel and MIMAS MOX fuel perform similarly, releasing up to about 1% of the fission gas inventory. Comparisons with the Halden Criterion show that SBR MOX has the same release threshold as UO2 and this suggests that the mechanisms of release in the two fuels are similar. This is further supported by calculations made with the ENIGMA fuel performance code. It is concluded that the apparent differences in fission gas release between SBR MOX and UO2 fuel, at least in the early stages of release, can be explained by the higher temperatures experienced by MOX fuel.