The accident tolerant fuel is being developed by Westinghouse through the US Department of Energy’s accident tolerant fuel programme. The industry-led effort is looking to commercialise new fuels within the decade to help improve the performance and economics of US reactors.
Westinghouse loaded the fuel into a US commercial reactor in the spring of 2019. The lead test rods were removed during an autumn 2020 refuelling outage and shipped to ORNL in June.
ORNL said it will perform post-irradiation experiments on the fuel to help qualify the fuel with the NRC. Initial visual inspections of the fuel showed no signs of degradation after it was removed from the reactor.
Westinghouse is developing accident tolerant fuel through its Encore fuel programme. The company is testing a chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding that is loaded with their Adopt higher density uranium fuel pellets. The fuel could provide nuclear utilities with longer operation times, increased power outputs and higher fuel burnup.
The NRC recently accepted the company’s topical report on its Adopt fuel pellet that will also be considered during the licensing process.
Westinghouse is one of three US nuclear fuel vendors working with the DOE to develop accident tolerant fuels. ORNL said all three vendors are on track to have their fuels ready for batch loading by the mid-2020s and commercially available with widespread adoption by 2030.
