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Title: Development of improved TRISO-P fuel particle P-PyC coating

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/453962· OSTI ID:453962

Low defect fuels are required for the MHTGR to meet tighter fuel performance for this reactor design (Ref. 1). Exposed heavy metal (HM) contamination levels must be reduced to {le} 1E-5 fraction. Particle coating breakage during the fuel compact fabrication process has been shown to be a major source of HM contamination in the final fuel compacts. Excessive forces are experienced by the coated fuel particles during matrix injection, which leads to coating failure. Adding a sacrificial, low Young`s modulus, overcoating of low density PyC in a fluidized particle bed, was shown to greatly increase the crush strength of TRISO coated fuel particles in 1986 studies (Ref. 2). The new TRISO coated fuel particle design was designated the TRISO-P coated fuel particle type. In 1987, the TRISO-P particle type was used to produce low defect fuel compacts for irradiation in the HRB-21 Capsule (Ref. 3). However, the exposed HM contamination levels for that fuel barely met the product specification limit of {le} 1.0E-5. The small margin of safety between product quality and the specification limit dictated that additional process development of the TRISO-P particle design must be conducted. This document discusses the program scope, requirements, documentation and schedule.

Research Organization:
GA Technologies, Inc., San Diego, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-88SF17367
OSTI ID:
453962
Report Number(s):
DOE/HTGR-88090; ON: DE97003980
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 29 Apr 1988
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English