U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Advanced ceramic cladding for water reactor fuel
Abstract
Under the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Initiatives (NERI) program, continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCCs) are being developed as cladding for water reactor fuel elements. The purpose is to substantially increase the passive safety of water reactors. A development effort was initiated in 1991 to fabricate CFCC-clad tubes using commercially available fibers and a sol-gel process developed by McDermott Technologies. Two small-diameter CFCC tubes were fabricated using pure alumina and alumina-zirconia fibers in an alumina matrix. Densities of {approximately}60% of theoretical were achieved. Higher densities are required to guarantee fission gas containment. This NERI work has just begun, and only preliminary results are presented herein. Should the work prove successful, further development is required to evaluate CFCC cladding and performance, including in-pile tests containing fuel and exploring a marriage of CFCC cladding materials with suitable advanced fuel and core designs. The possibility of much higher temperature core designs, possibly cooled with supercritical water, and achievement of plant efficiencies {ge}50% would be examined.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Gamma Engineering (US)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 20086971
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal Name:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 82; Conference: 2000 Annual Meeting - American Nuclear Society, San Diego, CA (US), 06/04/2000--06/08/2000; Other Information: PBD: 2000; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; US DOE; RESEARCH PROGRAMS; FUEL CANS; WATER COOLED REACTORS; COMPOSITE MATERIALS; CERAMICS; REACTOR SAFETY; ALUMINIUM OXIDES; ZIRCONIUM OXIDES
Citation Formats
Feinroth, H. Advanced ceramic cladding for water reactor fuel. United States: N. p., 2000.
Web.
Feinroth, H. Advanced ceramic cladding for water reactor fuel. United States.
Feinroth, H. 2000.
"Advanced ceramic cladding for water reactor fuel". United States.
@article{osti_20086971,
title = {Advanced ceramic cladding for water reactor fuel},
author = {Feinroth, H},
abstractNote = {Under the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Initiatives (NERI) program, continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCCs) are being developed as cladding for water reactor fuel elements. The purpose is to substantially increase the passive safety of water reactors. A development effort was initiated in 1991 to fabricate CFCC-clad tubes using commercially available fibers and a sol-gel process developed by McDermott Technologies. Two small-diameter CFCC tubes were fabricated using pure alumina and alumina-zirconia fibers in an alumina matrix. Densities of {approximately}60% of theoretical were achieved. Higher densities are required to guarantee fission gas containment. This NERI work has just begun, and only preliminary results are presented herein. Should the work prove successful, further development is required to evaluate CFCC cladding and performance, including in-pile tests containing fuel and exploring a marriage of CFCC cladding materials with suitable advanced fuel and core designs. The possibility of much higher temperature core designs, possibly cooled with supercritical water, and achievement of plant efficiencies {ge}50% would be examined.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/20086971},
journal = {Transactions of the American Nuclear Society},
issn = {0003-018X},
number = ,
volume = 82,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000},
month = {Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000}
}
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