Components of accident tolerant fuel experiments developed by Global Nuclear Fuel arrive at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for testing. Credit: ORNL
ORNL is getting its first look at nuclear fuel test rods that spent two years in a commercial reactor. The new fuel concepts were developed by GE’s Global Nuclear Fuel and recently shipped to the lab for post-irradiation examination after commercial operation.
The test samples are part of an industry-led effort with the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize new fuels that could help boost the performance and economics of U.S. reactors within the decade.
“These were the first accident tolerant fuel samples to be tested and removed from a commercial reactor,” said Frank Goldner, a nuclear engineer with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “We applaud GNF on this important milestone to help commercialize these important fuel technologies and to ORNL for making this shipment happen and applying their unique capabilities to support our ATF partners.”
For these experiments, Global Nuclear Fuel loaded two different types of accident tolerant fuel concepts into Georgia’s Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant in 2018. The lead test rods were removed after the first 24-month cycle during a refueling outage and shipped to ORNL in early November 2020.
The lab is performing additional testing on the test samples to gather the necessary data needed to confirm performance requirements and to qualify the new fuel technologies with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“The improved safety and economic value to the industry is large and our utility customers need these types of innovations to be able to continue to operate and achieve subsequent license renewals for the existing fleet,” said Patty McCumbee, GNF’s ATF Program & Nuclear Fuels Product Manager. “Nuclear must be part of the on-going clean energy portfolio and GNF is dedicated to being a part of the solution.”
GE is one of three of the nation’s largest nuclear fuel vendors, along with Framatome and Westinghouse, who are working with DOE in developing new fuel and cladding mixtures that could increase the performance of commercial reactors and lengthen the severe accident response times of nuclear fuel.
All three vendors are on track to have their accident tolerant fuels ready for batch loading by the mid-2020s and commercially available with widespread adoption by 2030.
Read the full article on the web site of the Office of Nuclear Energy of the US Department of Energy.