AREVA enhanced accident tolerant fuel program - Current results and future plans
- AREVA Inc., Materials and Thermal-Mechanic, Lynchburg, VA (United States)
- AREVA Federal Services, Lynchburg, VA (United States)
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) concepts investigated by the AREVA team in Phase 1 to support the U.S Department of Energy Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel program and concerning light water reactors. The main goal of the 'fuel pellets with additive' concept is to improve the economics, performance and operational flexibility of fuel in light water reactors while featuring improved safety performance under normal and off-normal conditions. Within this concept 2 nuclear fuels were explored: Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} doped UO{sub 2} pellet and composite UO{sub 2} pellets. The second concept is the coating of zirconium cladding whose main goal is to reduce cladding oxidation and hydrogen generation during accident conditions. The coating materials were chosen to be compatible with the specific deposition process, to provide robustness in the nuclear environment and have a relatively small neutron cross section. Three coatings were explored: chromium coated claddings, electrophoretic deposition of coating, and MAX phase coatings. MAX phases are a family of the layered compounds with a general formula M{sub n+1}AX{sub n} with n = 1, 2, or 3, where M is a transition metal, A is an A-group element, and X is either C or N. Another improvement to the fuel cladding that was considered is to replace the zirconium cladding altogether with an alternative cladding material which can substantially improve reactor response during postulated accident conditions. Two concepts were investigated: molybdenum claddings and SiC/SiC composite cladding.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22750103
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Top Fuel 2016: LWR fuels with enhanced safety and performance, Boise, ID (United States), 11-15 Sep 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 9 refs.; Related Information: In: Top Fuel 2016 Proceedings| 1670 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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