Autonomous Inspection for Responsive and Sustainable Nuclear Fuel Manufacture (AIRS-NFM)

响应性和可持续核燃料制造的自主检查（AIRS-NFM）

• 批准号: EP/V051059/1
• 负责人: Malcolm Joyce
• 金额: $ 191.05万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV051059%2F1
• 关键词: Autonomous; Inspection; Responsive; Sustainable; Nuclear

Nuclear energy, derived from splitting the atom, is an important component of current UK electricity generation because it is low carbon and it is not affected by the weather. In order for the UK to reach its commitment for net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, nuclear power offers a way to offset the UK's previous reliance on electricity production by burning of coal and gas, whilst underpinning periods when renewable sources of electricity (off-shore wind and solar) are interrupted.The fuel from which nuclear energy is derived currently is made from uranium. Fuel for all but one of the UK's existing nuclear power stations is manufactured at Westinghouse Springfields Fuels Ltd., near Preston. However, in the next 10 years, all of these power stations are scheduled to close. In order to offset this loss in low-carbon electricity, new reactor designs are being considered because the requirements of nuclear power have changed since the current generation of operating reactors were built in the 1960s-1980s: modular designs are favoured now in place of large reactors built at site, that will be easier and cheaper to build, and which provide more flexibility over the power that they provide. In the short-term, the UK is considering small modular reactors 'SMRs', that are smaller versions of a long-established design, and advanced modular reactors 'AMRs', which will operate at higher efficiencies at higher temperatures. The UK is well-placed to compete for the manufacture of the fuel for these new reactors because Springfields has more flexibility concerning the range in uranium composition open to it than many of its competitors, but it will need to be competitive on cost.A principal opportunity to reduce the cost of nuclear fuel manufacture is to reduce the likelihood that fuel produced in the factory is not compliant with customer requirements. When this happens, the fuel has to be recycled through the process, unnecessary energy is consumed in recycling it, time is lost and waste is generated. In this research we shall study the uranium manufacturing process in the UK with the aim to investigate whether it can be made responsive to change in order to increase its efficiency and cost effectiveness. We have selected two examples where unexpected change can undermine compliance: uranium enrichment and pellet quality.Uranium enrichment concerns the proportion of 235U present in the fuel; 235U is the isotope that is responsible for most of the energy that is generated. It is a key component of the fuel specification and, because enrichment is not constant across a reactor core, the enrichment of each pellet matters. Enrichment is influenced by changes in the feedstock (uranium hexafluoride) and by faults that might evolve in the manufacturing machinery. We will explore whether the most advanced ways of detecting gamma rays available today can be employed to yield a measurement of enrichment at various points in the process. We will explore whether these measurements can be used to constitute data to be used to adjust the process to avert a change in enrichment, so that the effect on the enrichment of a given pellet can be minimised and hence the need for a whole batch to be recycled is removed.Pellet quality is premised on several factors: one is whether it is cracked or not. Pellets are checked by a variety of means including manually by experts at the end of the manufacturing process. At this stage microscopic cracks can be present occurring after the pellets are baked implying that they could be weakened beyond what is suitable for use in a reactor or that their thermal conductivity may not be uniform etc. We shall explore the use of hyperspectral and high-resolution imaging for this purpose, with the aim of deriving data for use in rendering the process responsive, so that, for example, an evolving flaw in a machine that is causing cracking can be removed before a whole batch is affected.

核能源于原子分裂，是目前英国发电的重要组成部分，因为它低碳且不受天气影响。为了让英国在2050年前实现二氧化碳净零排放的承诺，核能提供了一种方法，可以抵消英国以前对燃煤和天然气发电的依赖，同时支撑可再生能源（海上风能和太阳能）中断的时期。目前提取核能的燃料是由铀制成的。英国现有的核电站中，除了一座以外，其余的燃料都是由普雷斯顿附近的西屋斯普林菲尔德燃料有限公司生产的。然而，在接下来的10年里，所有这些发电站都计划关闭。为了弥补低碳电力的损失，新的反应堆设计正在考虑之中，因为自上世纪60年代至80年代建造的目前正在运行的反应堆以来，核能的要求已经发生了变化：模块化设计现在更受欢迎，取代了现场建造的大型反应堆，这种设计更容易、更便宜，而且比它们提供的电力更灵活。在短期内，英国正在考虑小型模块化反应堆（smr）和先进模块化反应堆（amr），前者是长期设计的小型版本，后者将在更高的温度下以更高的效率运行。英国在竞争这些新反应堆的燃料制造方面处于有利地位，因为斯普林菲尔德在铀成分范围方面比许多竞争对手拥有更大的灵活性，但它需要在成本上具有竞争力。降低核燃料制造成本的一个主要机会是减少工厂生产的燃料不符合客户要求的可能性。当这种情况发生时，燃料必须在整个过程中回收，在回收过程中消耗了不必要的能量，浪费了时间，产生了废物。在这项研究中，我们将研究英国的铀制造过程，目的是调查它是否可以对变化做出反应，以提高其效率和成本效益。我们选择了两个意想不到的变化可能破坏遵守的例子：铀浓缩和球团质量。铀浓缩涉及燃料中235U的比例；235U是产生大部分能量的同位素。它是燃料规格的关键组成部分，而且由于整个反应堆堆芯的浓缩不是恒定的，因此每个球团的浓缩都很重要。浓缩受到原料（六氟化铀）变化和制造机械中可能演化的断层的影响。我们将探讨目前可用的最先进的探测伽马射线的方法是否可以用于测量过程中各个点的富集程度。我们将探讨这些测量是否可以用来构成用于调整过程以避免富集变化的数据，以便对给定颗粒的富集的影响可以最小化，从而消除对整个批次进行回收的需要。球团质量以几个因素为前提：一是是否破碎。颗粒通过各种方式进行检查，包括在制造过程结束时由专家手动检查。在这个阶段，颗粒被烘烤后可能会出现微观裂纹，这意味着它们可能被削弱，超出了适合在反应器中使用的范围，或者它们的导热性可能不均匀等。我们将为此目的探索高光谱和高分辨率成像的使用，目的是获得用于渲染过程响应的数据，以便，例如，可以在整个批次受到影响之前消除机器中导致开裂的不断发展的缺陷。

项目成果

Super Resolution Hyperspectral Imaging based Automated Inspection of Nuclear Fuel Pellets

基于超分辨率高光谱成像的核燃料芯块自动检测

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Zabalza, J.

Passive, non-destructive enrichment measurement of sintered UO2 fuel pellets

烧结 UO2 燃料芯块的被动、非破坏性富集测量

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Parker, A. J.

Wireless information transfer with fast neutrons

利用快中子进行无线信息传输

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2021.165946
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
• 作者: Joyce M

Digital twin challenges and opportunities for nuclear fuel manufacturing applications

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113013
• 发表时间: 2024-04
• 期刊: Nuclear Engineering and Design
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: M. Bandala;P. Chard;N. Cockbain;David Dunphy;D. Eaves;Daniel Hutchinson;Darren Lee;Xiandong Ma-Xian

Robust Data Driven Analysis for Electricity Theft Attack-Resilient Power Grid

• DOI: 10.1109/tpwrs.2022.3162391
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: I. Khan;Nadeem Javaid;James Taylor;Xiandong Ma