Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy has launched new research and development (R&D) programs for developing new accident tolerant fuels (ATFs). These new fuel concepts are expected to bring several advancements in terms of plant safety. However, development, licensing, as well as deployment of ATF require a substantial investment among fuel vendors, operating utilities, and regulatory authorities. For ATF to be economically feasible, credited safety benefits may be necessary to provide an economic incentive for transition of nuclear power plants from Zr/UO₂-based fuel technologies to ATFs. As a result, it is essential to evaluate the economic viability of ATF by conducting a comprehensive safety benefits study informed by R&D and demonstration studies. In the present work, based on the best estimate plus uncertainty methodology, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification for key safety quantities under LB-LOCA are performed for the Peach Bottom boiling water reactor (BWR) with GE14 nuclear fuel design adopting the ATF concepts. A coupled TRACE-DAKOTA analysis framework is adopted to perform the uncertainty quantification. Based on the computational results and obtained statistics, the coping time increase, fuel performance improvement as well as the most dominating phenomena during the accident for Cr-coated cladding are investigated in detail. The results obtained are useful for subsequent plant PRA study and support a move to more modernized performance-based regulatory requirements to realize plant economic benefits.

自2011年以来，美国能源部启动了新的研发（R＆D）计划，以开发新的事故容忍燃料（ATF）。这些新的燃料概念有望在工厂安全方面带来一些进步。但是，ATF的开发，许可和部署要求燃料供应商，运营公用事业和监管机构之间进行大量投资。为了使ATF在经济上可行，可能需要信誉良好的安全利益才能为从Zr / UO ₂过渡到核电厂提供经济激励。ATF的燃料技术。因此，必须进行以研发和示范研究为基础的全面安全效益研究，以评估ATF的经济可行性。在当前工作中，基于最佳估计加不确定性方法，对采用GEF14核燃料设计，采用ATF概念的桃底沸腾水反应堆（BWR）进行了LB-LOCA下关键安全量的敏感性分析和不确定性量化。采用耦合的TRACE-DAKOTA分析框架进行不确定度定量。根据计算结果和获得的统计数据，详细研究了镀铬包层事故发生时间的增加，燃油性能的改善以及事故期间最主要的现象。