A Global Model for Predicting Vacuum Drying of Used Nuclear Fuel Assemblies

A global model is proposed to simulate the drying process of used nuclear fuel assemblies under vacuum drying conditions. The transient model consists of a coupled mass and energy conservation equation with appropriate source and sink terms. The classic Hertz-Knudsen expression is employed to resolve the evaporation rate and the associated water mass depletion in the system. Both latent heat of vaporization and residual decay heat are considered as sink and source in the energy conservation, respectively. The model is employed to simulate vacuum drying of spent nuclear fuel rod storage systems. Multistage stepwise vacuuming of the system is emulated, and several parametric studies are conducted to identify their role in the drying process. The predicted temporal profiles show that the proposed model is able to capture qualitative trends of the water removal rate, hence the dryness level of the system. The model prediction is also compared against experiments where the amount of residual water after a standard vacuum drying procedure is quantified. The predictions are found to compare favorably with the experimental measurements.