For additional news stories please visit the News page.

Posted on: 11/18/2009 12:00:00 AM... Idaho National Laboratory (INL) scientists have set a new world record with next-generation particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs).

The Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Program, initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002, used INL's Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) in a nearly three-year experiment to subject more than 300,000 nuclear fuel particles to an intense neutron field and temperatures of around 1,250 degrees Celsius.

According to a November 17 INL statement, the fuel experiment set the record for particle fuel efficiency by consuming approximately 19 percent of its low-enriched uranium—more than double the previous record set by similar experiments run by German scientists in the 1980s and more than three times that achieved by current light water reactor fuel. Additionally, none of the fuel particles experienced failure since entering the ATR in December 2006.

The purpose of the AGR Fuel Program is to develop fuel and produce experimental data that demonstrates to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it is robust and safe, enabling the coated nuclear fuel particles to someday be qualified for use in HTGRs such as the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). Developing particle fuel capable of achieving very high “burnup”—the percent of uranium fuel that has undergone fission reactions—will also reduce the amount of used fuel that is generated by HTGRs.

"AGR-1," as this experiment is known, is the first of eight similar experiments which aim to confirm designs and fabrication processes and performance characteristics for advanced nuclear fuel. The fuel specimens studied in the AGR-1 experiment were subjected to neutron irradiation many times higher than what they would experience inside an HTGR or a current light water reactor, allowing INL researchers to gain irradiation performance data for nuclear fuel and materials in a shorter time. Future AGR fuel tests will include particle fuel produced on a prototypic industrial scale to further prove the irradiation performance of the fuel design.

Although the experiment has left the ATR, researchers still have more work to do before the AGR-1 test campaign is finished. Post irradiation examination will evaluate the fuel and its layers of coatings for degradation patterns and other characteristics. In addition, controlled higher temperature testing in furnaces is planned to determine the safety performance of the fuel under theorized accident conditions. These activities will last another two years.

For additional news stories please visit the News page.