Pressurization of whole element canister during staging

An analytical model was developed to estimate the buildup of gas pressure for a single outer element in a hot cell test container for a post cold vacuum drying staging/storage test. This model considers various sources of gas generation and gas consumption as a function of time. In a canister containing spent nuclear fuel, hydrogen is generated from the reactions of uranium with free water or hydrated water, hydride decomposition, and radiolysis. The canister pressurization model predicts a stable pressure and a peak temperature during staging, with an assumption that a fuel element contains 40 gm of corrosion products and a decay heat of 2.07 or 1.06 Watts. Calculations were also performed on constant temperature tests for fuel elements containing varied amounts of sludge tested at 150, 125, 105, and 85 C. The pressurization model will be used to evaluate test results obtained from post-drying testing on whole fuel elements