International Collaboration to Advance the Technical Readiness of High Uranium Density Fuels and Composites for Small Modular Reactors

该项目旨在了解事故条件下特定高密度（核）燃料（HDF）行为的一系列因素的重要性。目前，UN和UB 2都是有希望取代UO 2的未来燃料材料，通过提高燃料循环经济性，能够实施更可靠的包壳解决方案。它们的部署是具有挑战性的，因为观察到的与高温蒸汽的快速反应，在轻水反应堆（例如GW规模的商业工厂或小型模块化反应堆）中的任何假定的包壳故障期间可能遇到的环境。目前，人们对这种反应知之甚少，并且受到国际机构混淆结果的限制。拟议的工作旨在通过采用循环方法来解决这一问题，一系列国际合作者交换样品和数据，以便对联合国水解行为有一个机械的理解。此外，将制造复合UN-UB 2燃料，这已被视为推动UN起始温度的改进，但仍有待理解。通过对UN行为和典型轻元素污染物的重要性进行更深入的机械理解，我们将寻求探索UB 2对UN燃料的影响，从而开发出更具抗性的未来燃料形式。

This project seeks to understand the importance of a range of factors on how specific High Density (nuclear) Fuels (HDFs) behave under accident conditions. At present both UN and UB2 are promising future fuel materials to replace UO2, enabling more robust cladding solutions to be implemented by improving fuel cycle economics. Their deployment is challenging due to an observed rapid reaction with high temperature steam, an environment likely to be encountered during any postulated cladding failure in a light water reactor (such as a GW-scale commercial plant, or Small Modular Reactor). At present this reaction is poorly understood, and limited by confounding results from international institutions. The proposed work seeks to address this by adopting a round-robin approach, with a range of international collaborators exchanging both samples and data, in a bit to develop a mechanistic understanding of UN hydrolysis behaviour. Furthermore, composite UN-UB2 fuel will be manufactured which has been seen to drive improvements with UN onset temperature, but also remains understood. By developing a deeper mechanistic understanding of UN behaviour and the importance of typical light element contaminants, we will seek to explore the effect of UB2 on UN fuels, and hence develop more resistant future fuel forms.