A model for release of fission products from a breached fuel plate under wet storage

MTR fuel elements burned-up inside the core of nuclear research reactors are stored worldwide mainly under the water of storage pools. When cladding breach is present in one or more fuel plates of such elements, radioactive fission products are released into the storage pool water. This work proposes a model to describe the release mechanism considering the diffusion of nuclides of a radioactive fission product either through a postulated small cylindrical breach or directly from a large circular hole in the cladding. In each case, an analytical expression is obtained for the activity released into the water as a function of the total storage time of a breached fuel plate. Regarding sipping tests already performed at the IEA-R1 research reactor on breached MTR fuel elements, the proposed model correlates successfully the specific activity of 137Cs, measured as a function of time, with the evaluated size of the cladding breach.