Integrity of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) cladding should be remained during transportation as well as long-term storage and disposal. At first, this paper addresses machine learning to predict degraded mechanical properties of an advanced zirconium alloy. Subsequently, taking into account the estimated data, finite element analyses of a typical fuel rod were carried out under hypothetical drop accident conditions and resulting integrity was discussed.
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The accurate assessment of critical crack size plays a vital role in demonstrating the Leak-Before-Break (LBB) criterion for the safety demonstration of a sodium-cooled Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) piping system. The advancement of the crack size will increase the stress intensity factor and reduce the load-carrying capacity of the piping system. The prototype-sized pipe bend test revealed that even under a large-size crack growth situation, the ductile pipe bend fails by collapse rather than tearing instability. The critical crack size was realistically estimated based on a prototype-sized pipe bend cyclic test and compared with elastoplastic numerical analysis.
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