Fracture of Graphite Fuel Bricks

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The graphite core in nuclear Advanced Gas cooled Reactors (AGRs) provides channel for fuel cooling and shutdown/control rod insertion. Damage tolerance assessments need to determine that adequate margins remain for theintegrity of the fuel and the safety systems proper behaviour. For UK existing plants, graphite bricks' cracking is a keyquestion regarding lifetime management decisions. For the next generation plants, it has an influence on expected lifetimesand on investment plans.The objective of this proposal is to gain a good understanding and evaluation of fracture in graphite components bycomplementary numerical and experimental approaches. An advanced modelling tool allowing to simulate automaticallycrack propagation in graphite bricks will be developed and transferred to industry end-users. An innovative experimentalmethod will be elaborated to validate these models. Uncertainties on the whole core mechanical behaviour will beassessed.