Description
Chairs: Nathalie Chauvin and Min Xiao
There remain challenges in studies of properties and irradiation behaviors of mixed oxide (MOX) fuels, which aims at reduction in volume and toxicity of high-level radioactive wastes, because of the influential factors such that the fuel reaches very high temperature exceeding 2000 K and oxygen content in the fuel continuously varies depending on surrounding conditions. High temperature and...
On the basis of detailed review, the fuel types were proposed for the new design of the ALLEGRO gas-cooled fast reactor. The first core will be built with MOX or UOX fuel in 15-15Ti stainless steel cladding. These fuel types have been widely used in different sodium-cooled fast reactors. The second core of ALLEGRO will use refractory fuel. The primary candidate is carbide fuel – (UPu)C or UC...
In India, a structured R&D program on the development of metallic fuel and associated fuel cycle for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) is undertaken so as to realize commercial metal fuel FBRs in the future. Towards this, initially test irradiation of sodium bonded metal fuel pins in Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) core was proposed and hence the pin design for various compositions of metal fuel...
A high-density annular MOX fuel pellet fabrication technology has been developed for producing a low O/M ratio of less than 1.97 for fast reactors. The low O/M ratio sintered pellets aim to suppress the fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) at high burnup, and a simplified MOX pellet fabrication process (Short process) is a new production technology for this MOX fuel. The short process is...
Advanced Reactor Experiments for Sodium Fast Reactor Fuels (ARES) is a joint project between the U.S. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to investigate the transient fuel performance of metallic and MOX fuels. The project has the specific goals of experimentally evaluating the transient failure modes of high burnup metallic and MOX fuels, guided by...
In the framework of the European Commission call for proposal “Horizon 2020”, the project Plutonium Management for More Agility, called PuMMA, is granted. This project starts in October 2020 and will last four years. A work package is dedicated to the behaviour and safety of mixed oxide fuels with high plutonium content, which is essential for plutonium multi-recycling or plutonium burning in...
The Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, is a loop type, sodium cooled fast reactor. Its main aim is to provide experience in fast reactor operation, large scale sodium handling and to serve as a test bed for irradiation of fast reactor fuels & materials. India has been operating FBTR with Mixed Carbide Fuel as the driver fuel since...
The thermogravimetric method was used to study the behavior of uranium nitride and mixed uranium-plutonium nitride (MNIT) in a helium flow and a helium with nitrogen gas mixture at temperatures up to 2173 K. When heated in helium in the low-temperature range (˂1773 K), a mass loss was found, which amounts to hundredths of a percent. In this case, mass loss occurs in 2 stages, accompanied by...
