Enhanced Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel Element for the Advanced Test Reactor

Conference · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1177227

Pope, M. A. ^[1]; DeHart, M. D. ^[1]; Morrell, S. R. ^[1]; Jamison, R. K. ^[1]; Nef, E. C. ^[1]; Nigg, D. W. ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Under the current US Department of Energy (DOE) policy and planning scenario, the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) and its associated critical facility (ATRC) will be reconfigured to operate on low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. This effort has produced a conceptual design for an Enhanced LEU Fuel (ELF) element. This fuel features monolithic U-10Mo fuel foils and aluminum cladding separated by a thin zirconium barrier. As with previous iterations of the ELF design, radial power peaking is managed using different U-10Mo foil thicknesses in different plates of the element. The lead fuel element design, ELF Mk1A, features only three fuel meat thicknesses, a reduction from the previous iterations meant to simplify manufacturing. Evaluation of the ELF Mk1A fuel design against reactor performance requirements is ongoing, as are investigations of the impact of manufacturing uncertainty on safety margins. The element design has been evaluated in what are expected to be the most demanding design basis accident scenarios and has met all initial thermal-hydraulic criteria.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1177227
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-14-33161; TRN: US1500155
• Resource Relation: Conference: 35. International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors. RERTR 2014 , Vienna (Austria), 12-16 Oct 2014
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ENRICHED URANIUM
ATR REACTOR
FUEL PLATES
DESIGN
THERMAL HYDRAULICS
DESIGN BASIS ACCIDENTS
ZIRCONIUM
THICKNESS
ALUMINIUM
CLADDING
URANIUM BASE ALLOYS
MOLYBDENUM ALLOYS
BINARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
FOILS
MANUFACTURING
EVALUATION
PERFORMANCE
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
ATR
ELF
LEU
monolithic
RERTR
U-10Mo