Some results of Developments and Investigations of Fuel Pins with Metal Fuel for Heterogeneous Core of Fast Reactors of the BN-type

Developmental Objectives for Advanced Reactor Fuels

“…Once compounds of zirconium and palladium formed, there maybe be an insufficient thermodynamic driving force for reactions between the palladium and the lanthanides. ... 15 on metallic fuel that uses helium bonding, slots along the length of the fuel column to accommodate fission products, fuel compositions of either pure uranium or uranium-plutonium alloys, and a liner between the fuel and the cladding to reduce fuel/cladding chemical interactions. (a) Near the top of the core the burnup was apparently quite low so the original fuel geometry is evident; (b) lower in the core, ovalization of the fuel rod was observed.…”

“…The objective of their work is to develop "heterogeneous cores" (i.e., mixing of both UO 2 and metallic fuel) for their BN series of sodium-cooled fast reactors. [15][16][17] Although the initial emphasis appears to be focused on blanket pins that take advantage of the higher heavy metal loading of metallic fuels, 15 more recent studies indicate that they are also interested in metallic fuel for powerproducing fuel elements. 17 The effort is quite extensive in comparison to the current U.S. program, involving about 100 fuel assemblies and over 3000 pins.…”

“…Shapes of fuel columns being explored by RIAR. 15 The fuel shape that has apparently been investigated the most is of the slotted variety (see Figure 15). The driver for this particular design is almost certainly its ease of fabrication and is not related to fuel performance.…”

Radiation and Thermal Effects in Experimental High Dense Metal Fuel Elements for Advanced LMFR

“…Fuel column "jamming" in the cladding provided absence of axial movement and retaining of initial fuel column height. Radially directed swelling of fuel columns ("anisotropic" swelling) had an insignificant influence on inelastic deformation of the claddings (Golovchenko, 2010).…”