Postirradiation examinations of low burnup U3Si2 fuel for light water reactor applications

Fabiola Cappia; Jason M. Harp

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2019.02.047

Postirradiation examinations of low burnup U₃Si₂ fuel for light water reactor applications

Fabiola Cappia, Jason M. Harp

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

38 Scopus citations

Abstract

The United States Department of Energy Advanced Fuels Campaign in collaboration with industry is working to develop enhanced accident tolerant fuels for light water reactors. The initial irradiations of these concepts were performed in the Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Test Reactor using drop-in style irradiations. These irradiations are collectively referred to as Accident Tolerant Fuels 1 (ATF-1). The postirradiation examination of ATF-1 has begun and some concepts have now completed initial examination. This work is focused on postirradiation examination data of U₃Si₂ fuels at low burnup (i.e., < 20 GWd/tHM) for application in Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The U₃Si₂ pellets show limited cracking in comparison to the expected behavior of UO₂ at same power level. In addition, gamma spectrometry data did not reveal migration of fission products. Minor homogeneous hardening along the pellet radius due to accumulation of fission products and radiation damage was measured by microindentation. The fission gas release and swelling remain very low. Formation of fission gas bubbles resolvable with optical microscopy occurs from the pellets center outward to approximately 60% of the fuel pellet radius. The overall data suggest a good performance of this accident tolerant fuel candidate at low burnup.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	62-79
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journal of Nuclear Materials
Volume	518
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2019.02.047
State	Published - May 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

One of the author would like to acknowledge the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07- 051D14517 as part of the Nuclear Science User Facilities (Project 17–1091 ) for funding part of this research. This manuscript has been authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy . The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC07-05ID14517, 17–1091, DE-AC07- 051D14517
Office of Nuclear Energy

Keywords

Accident tolerant fuels
Post-irradiation examinations
USi

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jnucmat.2019.02.047

Cite this

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title = "Postirradiation examinations of low burnup U3Si2 fuel for light water reactor applications",

abstract = "The United States Department of Energy Advanced Fuels Campaign in collaboration with industry is working to develop enhanced accident tolerant fuels for light water reactors. The initial irradiations of these concepts were performed in the Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Test Reactor using drop-in style irradiations. These irradiations are collectively referred to as Accident Tolerant Fuels 1 (ATF-1). The postirradiation examination of ATF-1 has begun and some concepts have now completed initial examination. This work is focused on postirradiation examination data of U3Si2 fuels at low burnup (i.e., < 20 GWd/tHM) for application in Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The U3Si2 pellets show limited cracking in comparison to the expected behavior of UO2 at same power level. In addition, gamma spectrometry data did not reveal migration of fission products. Minor homogeneous hardening along the pellet radius due to accumulation of fission products and radiation damage was measured by microindentation. The fission gas release and swelling remain very low. Formation of fission gas bubbles resolvable with optical microscopy occurs from the pellets center outward to approximately 60% of the fuel pellet radius. The overall data suggest a good performance of this accident tolerant fuel candidate at low burnup.",

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