Advanced Light Water Reactor Nuclear Fuels

Background

Over the past two decades, the nuclear power industry has improved plant capacity factors with incremental improvements achieved in fuel reliability and use or burnup. However, these upgrades are reaching their maximum achievable impact within the constraints of the existing fuel designs, materials, licensing, and enrichment limits. The development, testing, and licensing cycle for new fuel designs is typically long (i.e., about 10 years from conception through utility acceptance). Fundamental changes are required in the areas of nuclear fuel composition, cladding integrity, and the fuel/cladding interaction to reach the next levels of fuel performance. The technological improvements being developed in the Advanced LWR Nuclear Fuels Pathway center on development of revolutionary cladding materials supported by enhanced fuel mechanical designs and alternate fuel compositions. If realized, the changes would have substantial beneficial improvements in nuclear power plant economics, operation, and safety.

Purpose

The goal of this pathway is to develop an advanced nuclear fuel with significantly improved performance characteristics relative to current LWR fuel. The focus is on Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic matrix composite (CMC) clad fuels, which have the potential to provide the desired significant improvements in performance.

Vision

The Advanced LWR Nuclear Fuels Pathway performs research on improving reactor safety, increasing fuel economics, producing advanced cladding designs, and developing enhanced computational models to predict fuel performance. Strategic industry engagement includes collaborations with Electric Power Research Institute, Westinghouse Electric Company, and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy. Research and development goals are directed at improving the scientific knowledge basis for understanding and predicting fundamental nuclear fuel and cladding performance in nuclear power plants, and applying the information to development of high-performance, high-burnup fuels with improved safety, cladding, integrity, and nuclear fuel cycle economics. This research is further designed to demonstrate each of the technology advancements while satisfying all safety and regulatory limits through rigorous testing and analysis. Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials have been chosen as the cladding material for fuels under investigation in this pathway because of their potential for significant improvements in performance. The technology selected for development and deployment intentionally was chosen to minimize developmental risk.

The LWRS Program‘s Advanced LWR Nuclear Fuels Pathway is separated into three research and development tasks: (1) SiC CMC designs and concepts, (2) mechanistic understanding of fuel behavior, and (3) advanced tools.