ML22339A075
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| ML22339A075 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/08/2022 |
| From: | NRC (Affiliation Not Assigned) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML22293A445 | List: |
| References | |
| M221208 | |
| Download: ML22339A075 (12) | |
Text
Commission Briefing:
Overview of Advanced Reactor Fuel Activities Andrew Griffith Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain Office of Nuclear Energy December 8, 2022
Agenda
- Top Priorities: Advanced Reactor Development
- Advanced Reactor Fuel R&D to Support Industry
- High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium
- Summary 2
Top Priorities: Build Advanced Reactors 1
Kemmerer, WY Grant County, WA 3
Top Priorities: Build Advanced Reactors 2
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Top Priorities: Build Advanced Reactors 3
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TRISO Fuel - Many Designs Leveraging Deep Investments
- Advanced gas reactor (AGR) fuel qualification program has performed fabrication, irradiation, post-irradiation examination (PIE), and safety testing on TRISO particle fuel since 2002.
- Tested to 1800°C - exhibits low levels of particle failure and maintains excellent fission product retention
- Average fuel burnup that is approximately 4 times higher than existing reactors and significantly improves overall economics
- Excellent long-term robustness which provides excellent spent fuel containment after use
- Collaborated with Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on a Topical Report which has been endorsed by the NRC (ML20336A052) and is reducing regulatory risks for high temperature designs planning to use this fuel type
- TRISO fuel has been selected for several high temperature reactor designs
- DOE is continuing PIE on irradiated fuel to quantify fission product retention characteristics and fuel performance in response to varying reactor fluence and temperature, support source term determinations, and provide experimental data required to support future commercial fuel fabrication activities. 6
Metallic Fuel LIFT - Leading Innovation in Fuel Technology
- Goal: Perform R&D to support qualification of metallic fuel technology to enable advanced reactor deployment and development
- Use TRISO fuel qualification as inspiration
- Reduce risk for market entry
- Objectives:
- 1. Establish reference fuel performance basis for U-10Zr/HT9 using legacy R&D and modern tools to fill gaps
- 2. Innovate metallic fuel design using accelerated techniques to maximize fuel applications and performance potential
- 5 years - Develop & demonstrate accelerated fuel qualification to deliver Na-free metallic fuel option 7
Molten Salt Fuels Development
- Legacy of solid fuel development data, models, platforms, and tools has limited utility for developing molten salt fuels.
- Establishing cross-cutting, multidisciplinary teams at national labs and universities to support molten salt fuel R&D:
- Developing salt preparation, recycling and purification methods UCl3- UCl4- https://www.ornl.gov/cont ent/molten-salt-chemistry-RbCl CsCl
- Characterizing and understanding salt structure and melt at melt at workshop property relationship 850oC 750oC
- Developing in-situ measurements for salt systems
- Filling salt data gaps and developing atomic level models to predict salt properties and behaviors
- Utilizing computer simulations and machine-learning approaches to accelerate the salt fuel developments 8
- $45M FY 2022 Enacted
- $95M FY 2023 Request
- $700M Inflation Reduction Act
- Only commercial scale supplier is TENEX in Russia
HALEU: Energy Act and Inflation Reduction Act Energy Act of 2020, Section 2001 Inflation Reduction Act A. Criticality benchmark data
- $100 million for A-C B. Design and license transportation packages
- $500 million for D-H C. NRC certification
- $100 million for support activities D. Consider options for DOE acquisition E. Biennial survey
- Remains available through September 30, F. Establish consortium 2026.
G. Cost recovery H. Establish capability to acquire/provide HALEU
- To the maximum extent practicable, use a competitive, merit-based review process.
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Summary
- One of NEs highest priorities is to support the deployment of advanced reactors.
- NE is supporting industry with the R&D needed to qualify advanced reactor fuel.
- Many advanced reactor developers are taking advantage of NEs investment in TRISO fuel development.
- NE is working to do the same with metallic fuel and molten salt fuel.
- Most advanced reactors need high-assay, low-enriched uranium and NE is working to establish a diverse, US-based, commercial HALEU market.
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