Extended life aluminide fuel. Final report

Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5422464· OSTI ID:5422464

Miller, L G; Beeston, J M

As the price of fuel fabrication, shipment of both new and spent fuel, and fuel reprocessing continue to rise at a rapid rate, researchers look for alternate methods to keep reactor fuel costs within their limited funding. Extended fuel element lifetimes, without jeopardizing reactor safety, can reduce fuel costs by up to a factor of two. The Extended Life Aluminide (ELAF) program was started at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) as a joint project of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the University of Missouri, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology research reactors. Fuel plates of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) type construction were fabricated at Atomics International and irradiated in the ATR at the INEL. Four fuel matrix compositions were tested (i.e., 50 vol% UAl/sub x/ cores for reference, and 40, 45 and 50 vol% UAl/sub 2/ cores). The 50 vol% UAl/sub 2/ cores contained up to 3 grams U-235 per cm/sup 3/ of core. Three plates of each composition were irradiated to peak burnup levels of 3 x 10/sup 21/ fission/cm/sup 3/ of core. The only observed damage was due to external corrosion at similar rates experienced by UAl/sub x/ fuel elements in test reactors.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 5422464
• Report Number(s): EGG-2441; ON: DE86012602
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
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ALLOYS
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BURNUP
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CORROSION
FUEL ELEMENTS
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IRRADIATION
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