Final Assembly and Initial Irradiation of the First Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development and Qualification Experiment in the Advanced Test Reactor
The United States Department of Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program will be irradiating eight separate low enriched uranium (LEU) oxycarbide (UCO) tri-isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel (in compact form) experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The ATR has a long history of irradiation testing in support of reactor development and the INL has been designated as the new United States Department of Energy’s lead laboratory for nuclear energy development. The ATR is one of the world’s premiere test reactors for performing long term, high flux, and/or large volume irradiation test programs. These irradiations and fuel development are being accomplished to support development of the next generation reactors in the United States. The AGR fuel experiments will be irradiated over the next ten years to demonstrate and qualify new particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors. The goals of the irradiation experiments are to provide irradiation performance data to support fuel process development, to qualify fuel for normal operating conditions, to support development and validation of fuel performance and fission product transport models and codes, and to provide irradiated fuel and materials for post irradiation examination (PIE) and safety testing.1,2 The experiments, which will each consist of six separate capsules, will be irradiated in an inert sweep gas atmosphere with individual on-line temperature monitoring and control of each capsule. The sweep gas will also have on-line fission product monitoring on its effluent to track performance of the fuel in each individual capsule during irradiation. The final design phase for the first experiment was completed in 2005, and the fabrication and assembly of the first experiment test train (designated AGR-1) as well as the support systems and fission product monitoring system that will monitor and control the experiment during irradiation were completed in 2006. The experiment was inserted in the ATR in December 2006, and will serve as a shakedown test of the multi-capsule experiment design that will be used in the subsequent irradiations as well as a test of the early variants of the fuel produced under this program. The experiment test train as well as the monitoring, control, and data collection systems are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 912438
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-07-12136; TRN: US0800391
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP),Nice, France,05/13/2007,05/18/2007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ENRICHED URANIUM
FABRICATION
FISSION PRODUCTS
IRRADIATION
MONITORING
MONITORS
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OXYCARBIDES
POST-IRRADIATION EXAMINATION
SAFETY
SPENT FUELS
TEMPERATURE MONITORING
TEST REACTORS
TRANSPORT
VALIDATION
Advanced Test Reactor
gas reactor
irradiation test
particle fuel