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

核能源于原子分裂，是当前英国发电的重要组成部分，因为它是低碳的，而且不受天气影响。为了让英国实现到2050年实现二氧化碳净零排放的承诺，核电提供了一种方法来抵消英国以前对燃烧煤炭和天然气发电的依赖，同时支持可再生能源(离岸风能和太阳能)中断的时期。目前核能的来源是铀。英国现有的一座核电站的燃料都是在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这一损失，正在考虑新的反应堆设计，因为自20世纪60年代至80年代建造当前一代运行反应堆以来，核电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，建造起来更容易、更便宜，而且在提供电力方面提供了更大的灵活性。在短期内，英国正在考虑小型模块化反应堆SMR，这是长期设计的较小版本，以及先进的模块化反应堆AMR，它们将在更高的温度下以更高的效率运行。英国在这些新反应堆的燃料制造方面处于有利地位，因为Springfield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降低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，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，目的是调查是否可以使其对变化做出反应，以提高其效率和成本效益。我们选择了两个意外变化可能破坏合规性的例子：铀浓缩和球团质量。铀浓缩涉及燃料中存在的235U的比例；235U是负责产生大部分能量的同位素。它是燃料规格的关键组成部分，因为反应堆堆芯的浓缩不是恒定的，所以每个颗粒的浓缩都很重要。浓缩受到原料(六氟化铀)变化和制造机械中可能出现的故障的影响。我们将探索是否可以使用当今最先进的伽马射线探测方法来测量过程中不同点的浓缩度。我们将探讨这些测量结果是否可以用来构成数据，用于调整流程以避免浓缩过程的变化，从而将对特定球团矿浓缩的影响降至最低，从而消除对整批回收的需要。球团矿的质量取决于几个因素：一是它是否破裂。通过各种方法检查颗粒，包括在制造过程结束时由专家手动检查。在这一阶段，球团焙烧后可能会出现微观裂纹，这意味着它们可能会减弱到不适合在反应堆中使用的程度，或者它们的导热系数可能不均匀等。我们将探索为此目的使用高光谱和高分辨率成像，目的是获得用于使过程具有响应性的数据，以便例如，可以在整个批次受到影响之前消除机器中导致裂纹的不断演变的缺陷。

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.