Bend & Break – Investigations into fuel release during fuel rod bending tests

The package design approvals are based on the conservative assumption that, under accident transport conditions, large quantities of fuel will escape from the cladding tubes under the assumed mechanical load of irradiated fuel rods. In the mid-2010s, static 3-point bending and dynamic hammer drop tests were carried out on irradiated fuel rods with duplex and Zry-4 cladding tubes in the hot cells of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Karlsruhe and the release rates and particle size distributions were documented in detail.

The Bend & Break project extends the results with the cor[1]responding tests on M5^® cladding pipes. The tests will be carried out in the JRC’s hot cells together with the project partners Framatome and the Gösgen nuclear power plant. The project will precisely record the type, quantity and size distribution of the fuel fragments released in the event of failure and compare the data obtained with the results already available for Duplex and Zry-4.