Abstract
BISON, the Idaho National Laboratory fuel performance code built on the MOOSE framework, has been under development since 2008. It is a finite element-based code that is capable of solving fully coupled thermomechanical systems of equation describing the evolution of nuclear fuel. BISON has models describing the physical properties for light water fuels and cladding, metallic fuels, and tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) based fuels; and can model these fuel types in a variety of dimensions including 1D spherical, 1.5, 2D axisymmetric, and 3D. Here, we specifically investigate the BISON TRISO models and related capabilities by means of validation against the second experiment of Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development and Qualification Program (AGR-2). BISON TRISO failure predictions of the AGR-2 compacts are compared to the post irradiation examination reporting of TRISO failures by the AGR program to define a base level of confidence in the code’s predictions. While enroute to the comparisons, BISON result sensitivities to meshing density, solver tolerance, and maximum timestep size are investigated with results serving as study recommendations. Failure predictions presented here will be used to help direct future BISON developments.