Analysis of the IFA-432, IFA-597, and IFA-597 MOX Fuel Performance Experiments by FRAPCON-3.4

Validation of advanced nuclear fuel modeling tools requires careful comparison with reliable experimental benchmark data. A comparison to industry-accepted codes, that are well characterized, and regulatory codes is also a useful evaluation tool. In this report, an independent validation of the FRAPCON-3.4 fuel performance code is conducted with respect to three experimental benchmarks, IFA-432, IFA-597, and IFA-597mox. FRAPCON was found to most accurately model the mox rods, to within 2% of the experimental data, depending on the simulation parameters. The IFA-432 and IFA-597 rods were modeled with FRAPCON predicting centerline temperatures different, on average, by 21 percent.