Modelling advanced fuels for HTGRs at the atomic scale

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High temperature gas-cooled reactors have been selected by HMG as the technology of choice for the Advanced Modular Reactor demonstrator and building upon a strong UK history of gas-cooled reactor research and operations. A fundamental feature of this technology is the coated particle fuel, with a fissile kernel encased within several alternating carbon and ceramic layers. Operational reactors to-date have primarily operated with UO2 fuel kernels, but to fully realise the potential of HTGRs requires fuels to achieve high-burns of at least 2-3 times those of the current (global pressurised water) reactor fleet. This may necessitate the use of advanced fuels, with uranium oxycarbide and uranium nitride fuels two front runners. To aid in the understand of optimal fuels for HTGRs this PhD will use state of the art atomic scale computational methods based on static quantum and molecular dynamics methods to:-Understand the stoichiometry of UO2 during irradiation (to both low and high burn-up) when it is encased within a carbon buffer layer-Consider if, how and why advanced fuels are better fuels- UCO- UNThis will require the prediction of how key properties such as thermal conductivity evolve as well as volume changes (swelling), including the role of fission products, in order to inform fuel performance codes.