Electrical problems in electrical burn-out testing of nuclear fuel elements

Burn-out testing involves the heating of reactor fuel elements to destruction or near destruction. Its purpose is to provide a knowledge of the upper limits of power that can be removed from a nuclear reactor. The heating is done electrically because the electric heat can be conveniently applied and accurately controlled and measured. Also, the resulting heat distribution is very similar to that due to nuclear action. Electrical problems are associated with every phase of the testing and most of them have some nonstandard feature. The paper gives a detailed description of the electric equipment used in a burn-out test facility and discusses solutions to the various problems that have arisen during the test program.