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Advanced Fuel and Fuel Cycles S&T

Rosaura Ham-Su, Fuel DevelopmentNEA, 2015 February 12

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OutlineAdvanced Fuel and Fuel Cycles 

•Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

•Fuel S&T Drivers

•Advanced Fuel and Fuel Cycles S&T

•Summary

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CNL

Four sites:Chalk RiverWhiteshellOttawaPort Hope

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S&T FacilitiesHot CellsFuel Fabrication Surface ScienceThermalhydraulics

ZED-2NRU BRF

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Fuel S&Tnuclear fuel S&T, including fuel cycles, fabrication, testing, and post irradiation 

examination

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Advanced Fuel and Fuel CyclesAdvanced Fuel and Fuel Cycles are aimed at sustainability for both, power reactors and research reactors

Power reactors: Gen III and Gen IV, small reactors

Reference fuel for SCWR Thoria/13% Plutonia

CNL OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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Sustainability

•Expand limits of resources•Reduce, reuse, recycle•Alternative fuels cycles (thoria)

•Increase safety and reliability•Decrease environmental impact

•Reduce waste•Manage spent fuel cycle

•Develop proliferation-resistant fuel and fuel cycles

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Areas of Interest

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Advanced Nuclear Fuel and Fuel Cycles

Core optimization

B.P. Bromley and B. Hyland, Nuclear Technology, Vol. 186,  pp. 317‐339, 2014.

(LEU or RgPu)ThO2

ThO2

•“seed” and “blanket” fuel bundles can be used to breed U‐233•concepts yield fissile utilization competitive with natural uranium

•cores can be optimized for either power or U‐233 production•all concepts can be implemented in the same, conventional HWR core

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Fuel Fabrication

Metallic fuel

Proliferation resistant,Recyclable fuelFor Research Reactors

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Fuel Fabrication

Ceramic fuel

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Fuel Fabrication

Weld Controller Load 

Sensor

Electrode

Sample in holder

Development of joining techniquesHigh precision machiningWelding and brazing

High frequency welding

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Fuel Characterization

-800 -600 -400 -200 00

1

2

Inte

nsity

(100

000

coun

ts/s

)

Representative Area on InsideSurface of Fuel Sheath from

Bottom Segment of DME-210/AM03

Ba 3d

5x

O KLL

5x

U 4f Cs 4d

Te 4d

O 1sCd 3d

Cs 3d

C 1s

Binding Energy (eV)

Te 3p

Te 3d

I 3d

Rb 3p

Rb 3d5x

X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of fuel sheath from experimental fuel

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EBSD

Twin boundary and possible blunted transgranular crack at the twin boundaries

*

*

*

*

*

1

3

6

9

2

7

8

5

**

*

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4

Direction of Tensile Stress

EBSD band contrast map

Pole figure Region 1

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Glove box facilities

Actinides

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Fuel Cycles

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

0 200 400 600 800 1000

Decay heat (GW)

Years since end of scenario

Current global cycle, LWRs + HWRs

Transition to once‐through thorium in CANDUTransition to fast reactors

Transition to Th withU‐233 recycle in 

CANDU

Thorium with U‐233 gives a 75% reduction over the current cycle

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Fuel Cycles

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Testing and Post Irradiation Examination

Fuel testing Evaluation of fuel performanceFailure investigations

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Testing and Post Irradiation Examination

• PWR fuel with 670 MWh/kgU • 0.8 wt.% U‐235 in U; 0.9 wt.% Pu in HE

• Tested to additional burnup of 517 MWh/kgHE (NRU)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 18000.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Ther

mal

diff

usiv

ity (m

m2 /s

)

Temperature (°C)

As-fabricated 97% TD sintered UO2

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ICAF

Comparison of fuel temperatures versus power rating for ICAF and solid rod fuel

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Advanced Fuel and Fuel CyclesWhat is next

Support CanduThoria RoadmapSmall Reactors

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SummaryAdvanced Fuel and Fuel Cycles

CNLFuel S&T driver: sustainabilityAreas of interest

rosaura.ham-su@cnl.ca

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